


Fach - Trapped

by Mini_Goat



Series: Fate [19]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Hostage Situations, Kidnapping, Rescue Missions, Suspense, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-10-17 19:36:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 42,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20626424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mini_Goat/pseuds/Mini_Goat
Summary: The strings of fate draw together as the lives of Jon and Sammy become entwined with SG1 in a way not even Jack O’Neill would have thought of





	1. Every Rose Has it’s Thorn

**Author's Note:**

> Set during season 10 of SG1, in a desperate bid to save Sam from the Ori Vala Daniel Cam and Teal’c need to get to Jack before his instincts to save his wife create an opportunity the Ori can’t resist. For those of you not invested in the cloned Jack and Sam stories (Or those of you who might only want to read those parts) you will need to read chapter 1 and chapter 22 either way. Chapters 4, 8, 12, 15 and 19 are SPECIFIC to Jon and Sammy if you want to skip one story or the other.

**Fach - Trapped**

**Chapter 1 – Every Rose Has It’s Thorn**

Mary stomped up the stairs. “All right all ready. Keep your shirt on.” She growled at the ringing doorbell. When it rang again, she threw her hands up in the air. “Jesus Christ your house better be on fire.” She said as she yanked open the door to reveal a thin, dark haired woman in messy pigtails with mossy blue eyes looking anxiously at her. “What?” She said ungraciously.

“Is this the Amos residence? I’m looking for Sammy Carter. It’s very urgent I speak to her.” She said in a warm breathy voice. Her nervousness obvious in her fidgeting and slightly panicked voice. Beside her sat a baby carrier that emitted a disgruntled squall from under the pink and white blanket draping it.

“She’s at school right now. Come on in and tell me what this is about.” It was too chilly to let the woman stand on the porch with a baby no matter what the issue was.

“Wil! WILSON!” she turned and yelled up the stairs, as the woman came in the house and maneuvered the baby carrier into the foyer.

A moment later a mop of graying hair appeared over the landing. “What?! You made me crash!”

“It’s an imaginary airplane. You can fly another one.” She muttered something that sounded suspiciously like idiot. “We have a guest.” She told him indicating the anxious woman taking off her coat.

Wilson came down the stairs and stopped half-way down. “Vala?”

“You know this woman?” Mary asked him.

“Not exactly. I met her Christmas Eve at General O’Neill’s house when I took the kids over to drop off their gift.” He noticed the baby carrier. “What’s going on?” he asked as he came down the rest of the stairs.

“I really need to talk to Sammy as soon as possible.” Vala told him.

“Well, come in and sit down.” He told her leading to the dining area in the kitchen. It wasn’t like someone from SGC to just show up on their doorstep unless it was to deliver an sf312 non-disclosure wrapped in trouble.

“Thank you.” She picked up the baby carrier and followed Wil and Mary into the kitchen. She looked around at the homey room of oak cabinetry, blue containers and friendly yellow walls. “Very pretty” she observed.

“Thank you.” Mary told her automatically from the coffee maker as she got it brewing.

The baby fussed again and Vala pulled the blanket covering her off and undid the clips on the safety straps. “There, there, pumpkin.” She crooned to her reassuringly.

Wil looked at the head of downy dark gold curls and soft blue eyes that looked up at the dark haired woman with interest. “She’s very pretty.” He told her.

“She’s the reason I’m here.” Vala cut her eyes to Mary who had sat down at the table unsure how much she could say.

“What do you mean?” Mary asked her.

“Mare, why don’t you go ahead and get back to work. I think this might be something it’s better you didn’t hear all of.” Wil suggested.

“If it was work-related, why didn’t they just call you in?” She complained.

“Because something tells me this might be a bit off the books.”

Mary tilted her head in an ‘oh I see’ gesture and nodded. “I’ll be back in a bit. Sammy should be home in about half an hour. Wil, do you think I should tell her to bring Jon?” She asked perceptively.

Wil nodded thoughtfully and pulled on his lower lip. “I think you need to or better yet text him directly. I’ll need to talk to both of them I think.”

Vala looked back and forth between the two. She recognized that kind of half conversation of partners who had been together a very long time and only needed to say a third of what they meant. General O’Neill and Sam acted that way most of the time. Oh god. Sam. Vala’s eyes teared up.

After Mary closed the basement door Wil turned to her. She was rocking the baby in a way that suggested it was as much to soothe herself as it was the little girl. “What happened?” He asked her softly with concern.

Vala looked into his warm, kind brown eyes and realized they reminded her a lot of Jack’s. “They took her.” Vala finally choked out, unable to stop the flood of tears. “It was a routine mission and we got separated and they took her.” The baby whimpered as if she knew who Vala meant.

“Who?” Will asked her confused and concerned for this distraught woman.

“Sam. They took Sam. We think the Ori have her and Jack. Oh my god Jack is beside himself and a basket case and he’s pretending he’s not.”

“Is that why you have the baby? Because Jack is in no shape to care for her?”

“No. He went after them. He handed her off and he and Cameron left to go find her before they do something horrible to her. Daniel and I need to go too. He told us not to follow them but he doesn’t know the Ori like I do and Cam doesn’t really either. If they find out what Jack is they won’t hesitate to try to use him.”

“What do you mean?”

Vala didn’t give a crap about national security at this point. She needed to give them a reason to hide the baby from the Ori until Jack found Sam. “Jack has some kind of special gene. One of his direct ancestors was Alteran. The Ori will force him to do things if they find out what he is. I didn’t figure it out until after they left or I would have begged him not to go himself.”

“Didn’t Daniel try to stop him?”

“He and Teal’c both did but all Jack would focus on was that they had Sam and the best we managed was to get him to take Cam with him.” She stroked the soft curls on the baby’s head. Grace shoved her fist in her mouth and whined mama.

“Is she weaned?” he finally asked Vala.

“Yes. Recently, but yes. Listen the fact that she’s Jack’s biological daughter is a secret.”

Wil looked at her askance. Considering he was harboring the cloned Sam in his house and was marginally responsible for her cloned former CO, his once General, both of whom were being kept secret from large swaths of alphabet soups for their own protection he reasoned if there was something specific about Jack’s genealogy that could be used against them it was a pretty good idea to cover that detail with a layer of manure. He nodded thoughtfully at Vala. “Would you like something to eat? There’s not much more we can discuss until the kids get here.” He shrugged.

“Yes that would be lovely. Do you have any applesauce for the baby?” she asked hopefully.

“I’m sure there is some around here.” He said as he got up and dug around in the kitchen a bit.

“I’ve got loads of stuff for her in the car. Clothes, food, some of Sam’s milk frozen just in case she turns her nose up at solids again like she did to Jack once when Sam was on a mission. I didn’t know where else to go. I can’t leave her at the base and none of us have any family to speak of except each other.”

Wil nodded. “Ham and swiss on rye ok? I have some chicken if you’d prefer.”

“Whatever you have is fine. I’m not a picky eater.” She adjusted the toddler to sit on her knee and bounced it a bit. “She’s being really good right now but you wouldn’t know it two hours ago when Jack dropped her off. I think she knew he was leaving.”

“Babies pick up on things you don’t expect them to. If he was extremely upset she’d have felt it even if he kept his voice even and acted otherwise normal.” He brought the sandwiches to the table and a cup of applesauce and a spoon for Grace.

Vala began feeding Grace who liked applesauce enough not to fight Vala feeding her for the moment. Wil tilted his head. “The kids are home.” He announced.

“How do you know?” she asked curious.

“Jon has a Vespa. Sounds like a wind up toy.” He said chuckling.

They came in through the garage wearing matching concerned faces. “Uncle Wil, Aunt Mare texted Jon and told him to come over straight from school but didn’t tell him why. Is everything ok? Is he in trouble for something?” Sammy asked when she saw him eating a sandwich at the table.

“Have a seat kiddo.” He told her. Jon gave him a confused look. “You too Sport.” He told Jon, whose eyes landed on Grace once he was in the room.

“What’s wrong? Where’s Sam?” Jon asked immediately, his tone a command rather than a question.

Oh this is not going to go well, Wil decided. “Sit, Jon. Vala will explain.”

Jon sat and stared hard at the woman holding what was essentially his daughter if you wanted to get biological about it. “Sir.” Was all he said in acknowledgement of Wil’s command.

“Yes, well, I can see this is something I need to start at the beginning about.” Vala said to Jon. Sammy sat silently lost in troubled thought and it didn’t escape Vala’s notice that Jon was holding her hand under the table reassuringly. “Two days ago we, SG1 that is, went on a routine mission to a quaint little planet with assorted small villages. Unknown to us, someone on the town council contacted the Ori and told them we were there. They must have tricked her guide too because he seemed to have no idea there was an ambush. They didn’t even bother with the rest of us or they didn’t think they could capture us easily all at once. Whatever their reasoning, they grabbed Sam and left. The council put the traitors in prison but it was too late. They were long gone by the time we got any information out of them.

At any rate we returned home and tried to go after her, figuring they might have taken her to Celestis we headed off for there with a couple teams in the middle of the night. Aside from nearly getting captured and losing two members of SG6 to the Ori staff weapons we found out she wasn’t even there.

So we went home and Landry informed Jack that Sam was missing straight away. He showed up in the briefing room still dressed in his uniform, Grace fussing in his arms, handed her to Landry and stalked off to the locker room without so much as a ‘nice to see you’, changed, came back and ordered Walter to dial the last known gate address we’d gotten from the traitors. Of course, he and Landry got into a row about it and Daniel tried to stop him and Teal’c tried to reason with him but there was no talking to him at all. We got him to at least take Cam along and he ordered Daniel to take care of Grace as he’d be gone for as long as it takes.”

“It’s a trap.” Jon said in a quiet firm voice.

“Well of course it’s a trap.” Vala agreed. “I’d be disappointed if it wasn’t honestly.”

“It wasn’t SG1 they wanted. It’s Jack.” Jon insisted.

“For what?” Wil asked him, still bewildered.

“They must know what he is and if he’d been thinking straight he’d have realized it and planned better.”

“He knows.” Sammy told him.

“What?”

“He knows it’s a trap.” She said her vice quiet but firm.

“Then he knows what they will do to them once they have them both.” He snarled.

“He’s counting on her to be able to get them out before it gets to that.”

“They don’t know she just had a baby.” Jon realized.

“Or if they do, their source is someone in NID or another company that knows the official story not the real one.” They stared at each other in horror. “If they find out about her.”

“Then she’s not safe either.” Jon agreed. “Shit.”

Sammy unconsciously shifted to at attention in her seat and looked at the woman holding Grace. “Vala, leave her here. While there are some people that know about Jon, no one knows about me that isn’t supposed to. She’ll be safe here. They won’t think to look to him anyway. They will assume you used one of the SGC safe houses and hired a nanny.”

“Have someone appear to take a baby to one of the safe houses then not leave it and post up a guard. That will throw them further off the trail.” Jon suggested.

“Is this how you two always work?” Vala asked in wonder.

“Usually.” Jon admitted.

“No wonder you beat the Goa'uld. You outsmarted them.” She said with honest admiration.

“We had a lot of help.” Sammy told her. “Come on, lets get Grace’s stuff out of your car before anyone notices you’re here. Did you bring a bed? If not, I think Kaylee’s is still here from the holidays. Tim forgot to take it home.”

“I’ve got her a port-a-crib and gobs of clothes and diapers and baby food and some of Sam’s milk frozen in case she has another not eating solids episode. There’s more at their house if you need it.”

“Good. This will be enough to start. We’ll have to sneak into the house if we need anything. I don’t want anyone to think she’s anywhere but at a safe house.” Jon said.

Wil had sat back in silence watching the conversation. Not that he had any doubts but to watch these two transform before his eyes from young teens to the mentally adult people they were in an instant simply because there was a crisis was fascinating. They really did have General O’Neill and Colonel Carter’s memories. It wasn’t just a genetic clone. “You can set her up in the guest room. Jon, do you want to stay here until this is over?”

Jon clearly desperately wanted to stay here but he thought hard about it before answering. “They might think to start watching me if they catch on that she’s not at a safe house. It might be better if I stay away from here for now.” He admitted sadly.

Sammy looked at him thoughtfully. “We’ll video chat instead. I’ll make sure any info I get goes to you.”

He nodded. “Thanks.” Plus he’d get to see the baby at least a little. His voice hadn’t taken on the deeper tones it would as an adult so he wouldn’t be as soothing to Grace as Sammy might as she sounded almost like herself already.

Wil got up and asked for Vala’s keys. She handed them over grateful that she didn’t have to unpack all the stuff she’d crammed into the red Escort sedan the USAF had issued her.

“Vala.” Jon said firmly.

“Jon.” She replied, a question on her reply.

“No matter how in control he acted, Jack is not ok right now.”

“I didn’t figure he was Jon.” She told him

“Vala, Jon isn’t kidding. Jack will act all calm and calculating on the surface but he’s not in his right mind. He will put himself in mortal danger to get to Sam before they do something to her because he might not figure out it’s the combination of the two of them they want not just him.” Sammy told her. “Not until it’s too late anyway. They must want a boy.”

Jon looked at her oddly.

“They already have Adria. She’s dangerous enough. A child of theirs with Alteran genetics wouldn’t just be dangerous.”

“She or he would be unstoppable.” Jon finished. “You and Danny need to catch up with them before they get to her and get through to him why they want him. They can manipulate a child of theirs genetically just as easily as they did yours.” Jon said to Vala.

“You know, It’s really odd talking to short versions of you two.” Vala said in false cheerfulness. “Are you all right with being saddled with baby duty? I know how you both are.”

“I’ll be fine. Unlike Sam I actually have baby sitting experience plus I have uncle Wil and aunt Mary here to help when I’m not home. She’ll be fine and she’ll be safe here.”

“Why does he look so familiar?” Vala finally asked.

“I used to be staff sergeant for the Cheyenne facility.” Wil told her as he walked past with his arms full of baby food. “I’ll put this in the pantry next to your supply of junk food.” He told Sammy who nodded.

“We do have one advantage.” Jon said thoughtfully.

“What’s that?” Vala asked.

“Well, two really. First, contact the Asgard. They might be of help. Second, the Altarens might intervene if they do try to manipulate the baby if they manage to force Jack and Sam to have one. He’s still over half human so their kids are going to be off limits according to the rules.”

“That’s true but if that’s the case they might decide to hurt them instead.” Vala told him.

“Yah. It’s not really a better option but it beats them getting their hands on a baby of two former hosts, one of whom isn’t entirely human.”

“I don’t think it would cause a harcesis but I could be wrong. Genetics was Janet’s specialty not mine.” Sammy said.

“It still might be a mix for trouble in the wrong hands. I bet that’s why they covered up who her father is.” Vala said of Grace who had nodded off in her arms.

“Do you want me to take her?” Jon asked.

“Would you? I’d really like to eat this sandwich.” Vala admitted.

Mary came back in on that remark. “All right, how much can you actually tell me.” She asked.

“Vala needs to go help find Sam, she was kidnapped. Jack is already looking. I’m taking Gracie until she’s found so their team can focus on helping Jack find her instead of worrying about the baby.” Sammy told her.

Mary caught Sammy’s complete drop of honorifics in that statement and Jon’s gentle snuggling of the now content six month old. “All right. I think it’s best if we tell people she’s my great niece whose mother is drying out somewhere. I’ve got enough family for that to sound plausible and people don’t tend to pry when it’s an addiction problem.”

“Oh she’s good.” Vala told Sammy with admiration.

“Vala, this is aunt Mary, and yes. She’s quite good.”

“Oh we’ve met. Sort of.” Vala told her. “I work with Sammy’s um, aunt.” She told Mary.

“I’d gathered that.” Mary said amused. She hadn’t pinned down how that whole situation worked yet but only because neither kid had slipped enough to do so. She wondered if they were younger siblings or something weirder like someone experimenting with cloning. That would explain the remarkable resemblance between Sammy and her ‘aunt’. Of course being stuck in a medical facility with only adults would lead to the kids eventually becoming attracted to each other. Too much togetherness leads to either hate or love almost always.

Wil noticed Vala had been given the official story apparently but watching his wife he sighed inwardly. She’d figured out another piece of the puzzle. He could tell by the expressions flitting across her face. They would know when she’d put the last few crucial parts together though. Mary was easy to read if you knew her well enough.

“I had better go. Daniel and I need to get moving before the trail gets any colder.” Vala told them.

“Be safe Vala.” Wil told her.

“I will.” She told him. “Keep her safe for them until we bring them home. I don’t know how long it’s going to take.”

Jon looked at her, they were eye to eye yet. “Bring her home.” He said, his voice choked with emotion.

Vala came around the table and hugged him tightly. “We’ll bring them home or die trying.” She told him honestly.

“Get to him before he storms the castle if you can. Use her to get through to him if you have to. It’s the only thing that usually works.” Sammy told her.

Vala nodded. “It’s the only thing that works on her too.” She told the younger version of Sam who blushed and bit her lip in an extremely Sam sort of way. “We’ve got a couple months if you’re right about why they want them. After that, the clock really starts ticking.” She admitted.

“What happens in a couple months?” Mary asked.

“Sam’s depo shot stars being unreliable. We think they are trying to force them to have a baby they can steal.” Sammy told her.

“That’s horrible. Go. Bring them back. We’ll watch their daughter. There’s not a person in this house without some combat training and every one of us knows how to use a gun.” She said firmly.

“She’s right. Mary’s dad made her learn how to defend herself and Sammy is a crack shot. Her last range scores were better than mine.” Wil who had a marksman badge admitted.

Vala looked from Wil to Mary then at Sammy and Jon who were standing protectively close to one another. “I should go. Thank you.”

Wil walked her out and Mary looked at the kids huddled together. “Either one of you want to tell me why that baby looks exactly like Sammy?” She asked them. They gave her nearly identical ‘who me’ looks. “Right. Sit you two. I want straight answers right now.”

“She’s put most of it together.”

“Jack will kill us.”

“I’m hoping by the time he finds out he’ll be so glad she’s safe he won’t care.”

“Just hope it’s not the other way. He won’t recover from that.”

“No. He really won’t.”

They shared an anguished look over that what if. Neither of them would do well with the loss of the other but Jack would by far come out the worst. The only thing that would keep him alive was the little girl in Jon’s arms.

Wil came back in the room from walking out Vala. “You may as well tell her. All three of you slipped up today and she’s already figured out most of it anyway.”


	2. Cotton Candy Words

**Chapter 2 – Cotton Candy Words**

Sam awoke from her drugged stupor to find herself in a nicely decorated room on a high bed. The style seemed to be mid to late renaissance by the looks of it with some modern looking touches. One of which apparently was a bathroom with a toilet and running water from what she could see through the open door. As prisons go, and she assumed she was a prisoner, this was one of the nicer ones. She sat up and her head swam. Whatever they had drugged her with wasn’t entirely out of her system. She closed her eyes for a moment but that just made the room spin. She opened her eyes and scanned the room slowly. She was alone. Her team had either been put in other rooms or weren’t taken. She hoped for the latter. They had taken her vest but left her clothes and boots though her bowie knife was no longer in her boot which was unlaced from being searched. They had left her the protein bars and ibuprofen packs in her pockets. Score one for her if the food was incredibly bad.

Getting up carefully she walked slowly over to the small lead paned window. It did not seem to open and it appeared to be a straight drop several floors down. She rested her head on the cold glass. It seemed to help a little with the fading effects of the drug. Where the hell am I, she wondered. The last thing she remembered was walking through a science lab. The residents of PL7-479A were at about earth’s late 1800s technology level and she’d been mentally calculating who she wanted to assign to help them get over the technological hump to electricity when she felt something poke the back of her leg. The room had gone blurry almost instantly and she’d woken up here.

She searched the room in case they left her something she could easily use as a weapon but there was nothing that wouldn’t require work to make a serviceable club. She’d have to wing it. Fortunately that was her specialty.

It was quiet outside her door so she slowly tried the handle. Apparently the door was unlocked. She slowly opened it only to be greeted by two large guards pointing Ori gauntlet weapons at her. Her shoulders sagged and she closed the door. Plan A never works of course she decided and she should have known the door being unlocked would have made it too easy. At least now she knew who was holding her. The next question was why and where was her team?

Frustrated she lay back down on the bed and tried to sleep off the effects of the drug.

* * *

She woke up to the room being considerably dimmer and the sound of scraping at the door. She turned her head slowly as if in sleep and slit her eyes just enough to watch through her eyelashes. A middle-aged woman with her hair pulled back into a severe graying bun was putting a tray of food on the table in the middle of the room. Sam opened her eyes further and pretended to wake up.

“Hi. I’m Sam, can you tell me where I am?” she asked in a friendly voice. She could tell by her very plain clothing that she was just a servant sent to bring food and little more but hopefully she’d be open to giving Sam some information.

The woman bowed a couple times nervously. “Hallowed are the Ori.” She said almost automatically. “I have brought you your evening meal.” She moved like a person ready to flee which Sam could understand. The Ori didn’t tolerate disobedience in any form.

“Thank you. Would you like some of it? I’m afraid I’m not very hungry.” She admitted and she wasn’t. The drug had made her stomach roll and pitch. She’d be lucky to keep water down.

“You will need your strength soon.” She said cryptically then left the room.

“Hey wait, I didn’t get your name!” she called but the woman was gone. Sam sighed. Well, I may as well eat. It’s not like I have anything better to do she decided. It did smell fairly good. She reasoned that if they wanted her dead they would have killed her by now and no one seemed to want information from her. She was basically just trapped in a rustic hotel room for all intents. Jack’s voice randomly popped into her head to welcome her to the Hotel California. She shook her head and chuckled. She’d need to get the servant to talk to her, find out if her team was similarly trapped here, what they wanted of her, why she had been captured this way in the first place and most of all why she’d be needing her strength. That sounded distinctly foreboding.

If her team was free and they hadn’t been able to find her they would have gone back to the SGC and reported to Landry that she was missing. Her stomach suddenly sank. Jack. She knew exactly how he’d react to her being kidnapped. He’d have torn apart the SGC taking what equipment Landry didn’t have nailed down then headed off to find her no matter what it took. She had to get out of here before he tracked her down and got hurt. Assuming there was any way for him to find her and she found out where here was.

She ate a few bites of the food sadly thinking about Grace. They had made her going back to work as smooth as they could. She had weaned Grace earlier than she’d wanted to but their daughter was thriving on solids and it had limited her mission capabilities being unable to be gone more than one day off-world. SG1 was a front line team not a support team. They couldn’t afford to be so severely limited in their capabilities.

Jack had more leeway with his time and access to on-site daycare at the building HWS was housed currently. He had quite a fan club showing up in the morning with their pretty blue-eyed daughter more mornings than not. The secretaries fought over who got to watch her if his day ran over and the daycare closed before he was done for the day. Oh who was she kidding. Jack had a fan club because he was a handsome middle aged guy with delicious warm brown eyes and thick silvering hair you just wanted to shove your fingers in to see if it felt as silky as it looked. She should know. She’d felt that way about his hair for years.

Sam sighed and ate a few more bites of whatever they had served her. I’ve got to get out of here, she decided. After I eat_,_ I’m investigating every inch of this room to see if there is a way out. Her team would be here soon to provide a distraction while she escaped. She knew that about them. Daniel and Teal’c would die before they stopped searching for her. It was who they were as SG1. More family than a team. Vala was part of that family now too. In much the way she had been alone, Vala was too. An estranged father, an unhappy home life growing up, a snake in the head. Yah, they could relate. Sam moved some of the food around her plate. What was that blueish mashed up stuff anyways. It was weirdly sticky. She ideally wondered what silly name Jack would have given it and didn’t notice the slow trace of tears until one plopped into her food.

“Snap out of it Carter.” She ordered herself in her best Colonel O’Neill impression and had to smile. She’d always had to resist the urge to kiss him when he gave that silly stern face of his. She’d bit a hole through her lip on the inside more than once in testament of that fact trying not to grin at him or worse. Giggle. Always at the worst times too.

Sam got up and turned up a couple of the oil lamps that had been burning low so she could examine the room more thoroughly. The walls were a rough texture, like a low quality plaster. They had a chalky grayish paint that rubbed off on her hands when she touched it. Sturdy dark wood beams framed out the room and ceiling. The table in the center of the room was rough hewn and solid. The joints were mortis and tenon and very tight. She wouldn’t be able to disassemble it to use a leg as a weapon any time soon. She checked out the bed that was on high legs. There was room underneath but the space was empty. The cross braces were screwed in. The wall next to the bathroom had a single built in bookcase that had towels, a couple bars of soap and other bathing items. The vials of oil were too small and delicate to be effective weapons if broken. They were meant to be filled daily. She sniffed the contents. Floral in the first one, rose with something else, something spicy like bergamot in another. A sweet almondy smell from another and one that had a musky tone. Bath oils. Nothing more. She sighed.

She tried the bathroom next. There was a sink, a low toilet with a pull chain flush and the gravity tank was either in the room above or it worked strictly on as needed and the plum was in the bowl assembly somewhere. Frustrated she examined the tub but it offered her no further options. “Dammit.” She swore out loud.

She was going to have to get the servants to talk and that was all there was to it. Small problem. Ori servants were terrified of their masters and women ones especially so.

Sam went back into the main room and flopped backwards on the unusually large bed for a prisoner. It made her distinctly uneasy that she might have company at some point. The kind of company a faithful married lady didn’t want and she’d been faithful to Jack longer than he’d realized. Pete had been her only outside sexual contact and even then she’d closed her eyes and lied to herself about the man in her arms to feel attracted to him. For the millionth time she wished Jack had thrown caution to the wind and admitted to her he loved her. That the ring she found years ago had been for her. They had wasted so much time.


	3. So Long Lives This

**Chapter 3 – So Long Lives This**

Cameron looked at General O’Neill with a worried frown. Jack hadn’t spoken very much, which was unlike him. While he rarely discussed things like how he was feeling or even what he was thinking, he could be counted on to chat about inconsequentials and make silly jokes about the situation they were in. This was a different O’Neill and Cameron Mitchell wasn’t really sure what to make of him. He’d tried at first to draw the other man out chatting about normal daily stuff. A tactic that would work on Daniel and usually on Sam. Daniel could have gotten the older man to talk but Daniel was on Earth caring for Jack’s daughter.

Cameron wondered how chatty he’d be if his wife was MIA because the Ori had kidnapped her and decided General O’Neill was acting pretty normal for a guy who was probably freaking out that someone might do something to his wife. Sam could take care of herself. She’d put him flat out on the mat more than once during sparing even when she’d encouraged him to fight dirty. That had been a bad mistake. She got mean when you fought dirty and he had scars to prove it. She hadn’t been the least bit sorry either.

Academically Cam knew that Jack knew how solid Sam was in a fight fair or otherwise. The problem was Jack was thinking like a husband not a solder right now. He had the right to do it but he was going to have to put that away or he wasn’t going to be any good in getting to Sam. He’d make mistakes that would get one or both of them killed and then Grace would never get to know what incredible parents she had. How smart brave and beautiful her mother was. How deeply her dad loved her mom and her. How strong they both were. How fearless. Cam sighed. He wished he had half that.

“Jack.” He finally said, looking at the man staring lost into the low fire at their camp that he was idly poking a long stick at.

Jack stared into the fire. “What?” He finally said. The word short. Clipped.

“Get some rest. I’ll take first watch.” Cam said softly.

“I don’t need your pity Mitchell.” Jack replied sharply.

“It’s not pity. We need rest and there’s no point in both of us being up. You need less sleep than I do usually.” He told Jack and he meant it. Jack could run on nearly no sleep for long periods of time. Cam hadn’t mastered that skill. He could go a couple of days but then he tapped out and slept like the dead for twenty four.

Jack nodded slowly at him. His mouth a thin line of inner anguish. He doubted he’d sleep but closing his eyes for a while wasn’t the worst idea. Sam needed him in fighting form. He didn’t know what the Ori wanted with her and he was honestly afraid to find out. They had left behind the rest of her team. Why. Why her and not Vala or Cam or Daniel. What was specific about Sam that they wanted her. Was she just a lure for the rest of them? But if she was why make her so difficult to find. Why not just take them all at once? They were on their third planet so far. The leads sending them on a goose chase that was clearly intended to slow them down and prepare for a trap. What was the damned trap?

Jack flopped on top of his sleeping bag and scrubbed a hand across his eyes in frustration. I’ve got to put this together before we find her or I could get her killed trying to rescue her. His heart squeezed painfully at the very thought. His words from years ago came back hauntingly. _I’d rather die myself than lose Carter_. If that’s what it took he’d sacrifice himself to save her. Sam would be ok without him. She’d hurt but she’d be ok. If he lost her, he’d die inside himself. He’d known that for years now. Grace deserved better than a shell of a father who blamed himself for the death of her mom.

What did those bastards want with his wife? What value did she specifically have that they couldn’t find elsewhere? Shit. Could it really be that simple? But then why not Vala instead or also. Unless… Oh. Oh shit. This wasn’t just a trap. He’d almost blundered right into it too. Now he had the added bonus of figuring out who in the IOA was an Ori sympathizer. Great. This was just getting better and better and wasn’t it just peachy that they had lied on Grace’s birth certificate to protect her and ended up being right way too soon. Shit, shit, shit. He’d better get some sleep. If he told Cam what he was going to do the younger man would stop him. He’d have to leave him a note and hope he had sense enough to go home and get reinforcements.

Jack rolled on to his side and tried to get some sleep. It was going to be a long night and he’d need his strength.

* * *

Outside the tent, Cam listened to Jack toss restlessly and swear softly to himself for a while and then there was silence finally punctuated by the occasional snore. They needed to come up with some kind of plan. He had half a mind to go home and get some back up before he got Jack up for his turn at watch. He stabbed at the small fire savagely. Why was the man so damned stubborn anyway? They had already lost track of her by the time they got the information out of the council members who had set Sam up. He was a bit surprised Jack’s first stop hadn’t been to go beat the crap out of them first but apparently Jack was thinking clearly enough to know they weren’t a priority at the moment.

Cam hadn’t caught on right away that they were married. They kept things very professional on base at all times. It had been Teal’c who had finally told Cam to lay off about being on Sam’s ass about team nights. She didn’t get to see much of her kid and she got to see less of her husband. She had kept her maiden name on her tags and when questioned about her home life would admit to being married and having a daughter but little else. He’d just assumed her husband was a civilian. He’d mistakenly joked to Teal’c that she shouldn’t be flirting with the married General when he’d shown up unexpectedly on base one morning and loitered in her lab and Teal’c had looked at him, raised an eyebrow, and started laughing at him.

He had to admit. He’d kind of had that coming for not putting two and two together since General O’Neill had gotten married the same summer as Colonel Carter had. Later Teal’c had explained at length how long they had been trying not to be involved because of regulations. Having read their mission reports front to finish Cam understood why they chose staying a team over their feelings for as long as they did but he personally thought they should have come to an understanding long before they did so as it would have saved them both a lot of heart ache. Apparently her dating someone else to try to get over him because he wouldn’t admit how he felt had been a sore point for quite a while between them. Especially as the guy was, from all accounts, a creep.

He kind of got why Jack hadn’t interfered. It was her life after all and Teal’c had explained that Jack worried that rescuing Sam from herself would lead to Sam eventually resenting him. Cam didn’t think that was the case but Jack knew her best by all accounts except the CMO Janet that had died in battle a couple years ago. Apparently they had been best friends and Teal’c personally thought that had Janet not died, Sam would not have gone on more than a couple dates with the cop before realizing he was a bit controlling and that it’s not nice to lead someone on when you are in love with someone else. If nothing else Janet would have point blank asked Sam if she really cared about the guy or if she was just using him and ignoring his questionable character because ultimately it didn’t matter.

Cam personally thought Sam might have dated the guy at first to make Jack jealous and finally do something. Anything. Sometimes Jack took the stoic thing way to far. Cam was pretty clueless in relationships but eight years was a long time to be in love with someone and not do anything about it. He had his suspicions that they might have very much been doing something about it behind everyone’s backs but that was both none of his business and pretty much SOP for military relationships. It wasn’t their fault they got stuck in an endless war with the Goa'uld. They had both just been tying to do the right thing and got screwed over for it by the government. Not really the first couple in that situation.

Cam checked his watch and realized it was time to get Jack up and catch some Zs himself. He got up and went into the tent.

Jack was laying face down on his sleeping bag still dressed. Snoring. Cam nudged his butt with his foot. “Jack.”

Jack swatted his arm sleepily. “Go way.” He muttered.

“Your watch O’Neill” Cam said and nudged him in the butt again.

“All right, all right I’m up. Jeeze. You kids these days are a pain in the ass.” He grumped as he sat up.

“See you in the morning, General.” Cam told him as he lay down on his back on top of his sleeping bag, arms behind his head and closed his eyes.

“Yah yah.” Jack said and pulled on his vest and went outside.

* * *

When Cam woke up the next morning there was no sign of General O’Neill. There was however a significant portion of the supplies missing and a note pinned to the tree near their camp with Cam’s own knife that somehow Jack had lifted off him at some point.

Cam read the note. “Sonofabitch!” He read it again. “Crazy bastard is going to get himself killed. God dammit! Sam is going to kill him. Shit. Sam is going to kill ME!” He stomped around the camp and packed up what was left of the gear. Now he’d lost his teammate AND her lunatic husband. He was so screwed.


	4. My Falling Star

**Chapter 4 – My Falling Star**

Wil came back in the room from walking out Vala. “You may as well tell her. All three of you slipped up today and she’s already figured out most of it anyway.”

Mary turned to Wilson. “You already know.” It wasn’t an accusation, just a confirmation of her suspicions.

“I suspected until I talked to Jon the first time. He confirmed some things for me. The rest, General O’Neill filled me in on over lunch a few months ago.” He waved Jon and Sammy into a pair of chairs. “He didn’t want you to just tell her but he did say if it was necessary to fill her in. She’s already cleared.” He shrugged.

Sammy bit her lip. “Want me to do it?”

“You know more.” Jon told her.

“All right. I guess I’ll start at the easiest starting point. Jack isn’t Jon’s uncle. Jack and Jon are the same person or nearly so.”

Mary nodded sharply. “I was wondering if that was the case.”

“Anyway, there was an incident and Jack wasn’t supposed to be cloned at all. The person who did it was rogue and it backfired. They were trying to study him without anyone knowing. His clone was supposed to be an adult but instead he turned out a fifteen year old kid. It was cute and funny but honestly we needed adult Jack back.”

Jon grinned at her and she blushed. “The clone wasn’t supposed to live but once Jack found out about it he refused to let them exterminate him. General Hammond and Jack made arrangements for him to have a place to live and for the Air Force to cover his living expenses until he could support himself as an adult and that was that for a while. Everyone went back to their own lives except Jon who was getting pretty lonely without his family around so uncle George decided to have Jack start checking up on him periodically.” She smiled at him. Jack had been so weirded out by his first sit down with Jon and she’d had a hard time not comforting him about how strange it made him feel because at the time she’d been trying to get over how she felt about him.

Jon smiled back at her. He’d figured George had pushed the issue.

“So for a year Jon muddled through being fifteen again and Jack tried to deal with his own issues.”

“We bonded over that by the way.” Jon told her.

“Really?”

“Yup. Nothing brings two guys together like loving the same woman that neither of them can have.” He told her bitterly.

Sammy sighed and looked in her lap. “I can never apologize enough for what that did to you. Either of you.”

“You already have Sam. You know I don’t dwell.”

“Ok but it was still wrong of me and I’m sorry I did it.”

“Next time you hallucinate, talk to the real me after. I’d have told you differently than what you thought I thought.” He told her simply. Grace had fallen asleep on his shoulder and was clutching the back of his shirt. She was proof enough of that statement.

She gave him a soft smile. She hadn’t realized how much she’d needed him to forgive her until that moment. “Anyway I, well, Sam started dating someone else during that time which is what we were just discussing.”

“I gathered that.” Mary told them. She was having a hard time following their conversation that consisted of speaking both as Sammy and Jon and Sam and Jack but it made more sense now that she knew Jon was somehow Jack’s clone which meant Sammy was likely Sam’s.

“A bit after that my dad died and told Jack and I both to stop screwing around and do something about our feelings for each other, well, rather Sam. I didn’t exist yet actually. So Sam dumped the guy she’d been engaged to because her dad had been right; she didn’t really love Pete. She was only with him because she couldn’t get over Jack. She even tried to get him to admit he loved her by showing him the engagement ring Pete gave her hoping he’d ask her not to marry the guy and tell her why but Jack didn’t want her to make the decision not to get married just because Jack loved her. She didn’t find that out though until they made up later after um... well…” she blushed and everyone easily guessed what she was trying not to mention.

Wil made a rolling motion. She nodded. “So they made up eventually but it took a while. They had a big fight about him not making the effort to fight for her or telling her about the engagement ring she knew he’d had for her for years.”

“Wait, you knew?” Jon asked, his voice squeaked.

“So did dad.”

“How did dad know?!” Jon asked her, eyes wide.

“Remember when you got trampled by that horse a few years back?”

“I was in traction for weeks. That’s when dad started being really nice to me too. I thought he just felt bad that I had feelings for you that you didn’t want to return.”

“Nope. I showed him the ring. I found it a few weeks before that when I was trying to put things away quickly before Daniel and Teal’c got there so it wouldn’t look like I’d been there all week like I had.”

“So much for those rules we had.”

“What you thought that was going to work? We were past it working much longer before Anise’s little stunt.”

“Could you guys move this along instead of arguing about stuff from five years ago?” Wil prodded.

“Sorry uncle Wil. So, Jack and Sam got into a really stupid fight about Jack not being more forthcoming about his feelings given several opportunities she deliberately gave him and they basically didn’t talk for a few weeks other than when they had to for work. Then they ended up on a mission together and effectively got drunk enough to let their defenses down and made up to each other which lead to her getting pregnant because she’d switched to daily contraception dating the other guy so they could work on having kids right away and then when she and Jack had a fight she went home and threw them in the trash and set them on fire because she was really mad at Jack and figured she’d get her shot when she got in for their next mission except she got drunk after instead and forgot about it and never told the doctor who assumed she was still using a daily.”

Jon started snickering. Wil and Mary both looked amused.

“I was mad ok.” She huffed.

Wil snorted and Mary started laughing outright. “Sorry dear. It worked out for the best but you’re lucky it was the man you love and not some random guy.” She told Sammy.

“I know. I know. I was just… really… mad.” She shrugged. “Anyway she decided the same thing and used that to hide the paternity of the baby because oh let’s see, the father of her child was still her commanding officer and therefore liable to court martial if that came out.”

It was Jon’s turn to blush. They had played fast and loose with the regs for quite a while. Long before alternate reality Sam showed up though they had been telling themselves it was just sexual release at the time. His panicked it’s against regulations had been about them getting married. They had already gone down the rabbit hole of getting physically involved with each other. “Yah well, at least it wasn’t the shrub’s.” he told her.

“After that things went better of course and he managed to weasel a dispensation out of Henry somehow even though I think he could have asked sooner and still gotten it and there still would have been no repercussions.” She said to him pointedly.

“Well I didn’t know that.” He muttered.

“George wouldn’t have tattled on you.” She told him pointedly. “So after that Sam was feeling pretty generous or it was the pregnancy hormones talking because the next thing you know here I am a totally separate Sam Carter with most of her memories up until Jack talked her into being cloned both as an insurance policy and because Jon was moping.”

“I was not moping.”

She gave him a hard look.

“Ok I was moping a little but so was Jack.”

“You are both pathetic.” She told him with an exasperated eye roll.

“I won’t argue that.” He admitted.

“All right, let’s see if I have this. Someone cloned you that shouldn’t have.” Mary pointed at Jon who nodded. “Later you talked that person into cloning Sam because they owed you for I assume not turning them in the first time.”

“More or less.” Jon agreed.

“And you have their memories up until the point of cloning.”

“Yup.” They said together.

“So basically you are two adults trapped in teenager bodies.”

“Not entirely.” Will told her. “Their memories are of Jack and Sam but emotionally and physiologically they are teens. Jon’s behavior is consistent with a sixteen year old boy and Sammy’s with a thirteen year old girl and they aren’t faking that. Jack should have made sure Jon had someone taking care of him even if he hated it but they didn’t know that until he’d been on his own for a while. Hell I don’t think Jack figured that out until George made him do check ins himself and by then it was too late so he tried to make the best of it. Part of the reason he encouraged me to keep an eye on Jon although, I’d already made that decision anyways.

“Sammy is with us because Sam and Jack agreed it would be better for both of them if she were a few years younger than he is so they could get to know each other as themselves and not just the memories they had implanted in their minds by someone. Sam is a lot smarter than Jack which is no insult to him as Jack is a really smart person in spite of the dumb routine. A bit childish but smart.”

“Hey!” Jon said in mock anger.

“I caught him reading comic books in his office after making general right before I retired.” Wil told him pointedly.

“Which ones?”

“Star Wars.”

“Those were Teal’c’s,” he tried to deny.

“Sure they were.” Wil agreed.

“Even so I’ve been treating you both like kids and I feel like I should have given you more credit.”

“No, it’s better if we treat them like the ages they are. Otherwise Grace is going to end up with a baby sister or brother before either of them is ready to be a parent.” Wil said.

Sammy blushed. “I’m not doing that any time soon.” She said shrinking into her chair.

“Soon, no, but in a couple years you will want to very much and that’s why we are making sure you two get to be kids first. Both of you had unfortunate childhoods. Jack wanted better for you both and I’m going to make sure you get it and not end up parents before you are ready if I have to drag you to the ObGyn myself young lady.”

“Yes sir.” She said in a very small voice.

Mary hid an amused smirk behind her hand. “Well,” she said after she got her face under control. “Wil always said his job was weird. Now I understand why. I already know this doesn’t go past this room but I needed to know for Grace’s sake. She’s an innocent pawn in all of this as were you two apparently.”

“Technically Sam volunteered.” Sammy reminded her.

“Technically you aren’t Sam as of eleven months ago.” Mary said firmly. “I’ll go get the baby’s room set up. Jon, why don’t you stay for dinner, it’s getting late. We’ll order take out then you can head home unless you want to stick around and help take care of the baby.”

“I’ll stay for dinner. If I’m being watched though it’s best I don’t hang out here until they find Sam. We assume they don’t know Grace is Jack’s but we don’t know for sure. It’s better if they don’t find out either. They could still want her to experiment on.” He didn’t want to reveal knowing what the Ori might want as he figured she didn’t have the special clearance Wil still carried.

Mary nodded. “I’m going to check the sweeper just to make sure and then we can decide.” She went downstairs and Jon looked at Wil.

“She brings stuff home. SOP for offsite contractors with clearance to play with your toys.”

“Whose idea was that?”

“Mine.” Sammy told him.

“Good idea.” He said agreeing.

“Of course.” She said smugly.

Wil laughed. Things just got more interesting that was for sure. He sent a silent prayer to whatever deity that listened to such things that Sam would be brought home safe and Jack with her. Wil had gotten pretty attached to their clones.


	5. The Sunshine in Your Hair

**Chapter 5 – The Sunshine in Your Hair**

Jack adjusted his over full pack as he stepped down from the gate and slipped a folded piece of paper into the underside of the DHD where he said he would in his note. Mitchell was probably going to lose his shit when he woke up some time in the morning and found Jack gone. Hopefully he’d follow directions instead of following Jack. SG12 was his first choice. He wanted someone with ordinance skills as his first choice for that job was currently being held hostage by the Ori and he definitely wanted medical support in case they hurt her or worse, this took too long or they somehow suppressed her birth control shot. Jack was all for having another kid but Irish twins weren’t on his agenda as he really wanted her body to have a chance to heal entirely and the Ori had already proven that they would take their kid and manipulate him genetically into an adult in mere weeks. That would be fun to explain to the brass now wouldn’t it. Half of them expected him to treat Sam like they had a marriage of convenience and avoid interaction with his daughter. Great for his cover story but even if Grace wasn’t his kid he’d never treat her that way. He’d have loved a child Sam had as his own even if he wasn’t the biological father.

Jack looked around and spotted the small village in the distance. His next stop. He’d need some clothes to fit in better. He didn’t want to announce his search after all. Hopefully there was a church near by that would give him a hand. If he got lucky they were goofy Ori worshipers and would tell him everything he wanted to know by dropping a few catch phrases.

That was the problem with religion Jack thought to himself as he walked. A little gave you hope when things got bad. Too much of it made you turn on your neighbors and develop an isolationistic mentality because you were right and anyone who disagreed was going to hell. If that was his attitude Daniel would have been dead a long time ago. Permanently for a change. Way too much of religion made you crazy and dangerous and your ex fiancé had to help the locals murder you.

Jack’s musings on Hanson lead him to ponder some of he and his wife’s bad habits that had led them to spend eight very long years not genuinely being with each other. Sure the regulations had been a problem but there were ways around that and they had explored most of them. Their real issues had been, well, their issues.

Jack was an honest man, at least with himself for the most part. He knew he was falling for her long before he said anything to her about it. He also knew he’d been part of the problem. Sam didn’t help things. The only time she wanted to discuss their feelings was when one of them was going to die. Any other time it came up she’d clam up like well, a clam. He wasn’t blameless though. Not even remotely. She’d tried to get him to tell her how he felt more than once. Usually at a bad time but she had, and Jack had clamed up too. A huge part of him had been afraid that if he said it first then she’d walk away. He’d been like that with Sara too. He wasn’t so sure in retrospect that their marriage would have lasted regardless of what happened to Charlie.

So when she’d gotten tired of him not admitting how he felt she decided to find someone else who would. He had to wonder if Sam’s bad taste in guys stemmed directly from her antagonistic relationship with her father. Jake was a good friend but he could be manipulative and controlling of Sam when it suited him and it had driven her up a wall when he did. And yet, twice she got engaged to guys who turned out to be the same way. One of whom had slapped her around some too. He didn’t even notice he’d clenched his fist at that thought. 

Turns out her brother was just as oblivious of that kind of guy as he’d set his own sister up with a guy exactly like her dad. All Pete had wanted to do was change Sam into some cute little housewife. His Carter. His beautiful, brilliant, tough as nails Sam who was the best shot he knew and could mop the floor with a man twice her size. A woman who had literally invented new laws of physics to save his life because she love him. He snorted. A housewife. What kind of life was that for someone as brilliant as Carter anyway? They wouldn’t have lasted a year and then she’d have been saddled with a kid and stuck dealing with that, that shrub for the next eighteen years. Or worse she would have stayed for the sake of the kid. Then she’d have been miserable all the time.

The worst part was if she had stayed with the guy and only stayed for their kid Jack didn’t delude himself. It would have taken her a couple tries to convince him to do it but he’d have gone right back to being her lover. He wouldn’t have even been sorry either. He’d have looked that shrub right in the eyes after making love to Sam and known that idiot never would have caught on. Hell - Sam was smart enough to make sure she had sex with that idiot if Jack had accidently got her pregnant just so he’d have no idea it wasn’t his kid. Not like there was Alteran tech just laying around Colorado after all.

It had been his own fault for the fight they had after she broke it off with Pete. Things had been going well until they started talking about it and he’d stupidly shoved both his feet in his big mouth at once. He’d joked that they could have avoided this had she tried telling him she loved him when he wasn’t dying and she’d plowed over him about the engagement ring in his living room table drawer and how he wasn’t one to talk considering he’d had that for years and not one time had he opened up about his feelings even when she’d brought it up.

Sure he had the Goa'uld to blame somewhat. Had Ba’al known about Sam he’d have tortured Jack in ways Jack didn’t even want to imagine. The war that never seemed to end with those snakes had been a huge reason they didn’t fix their problem. Sam had put her feelings in a room and locked it after the za’tarc incident. Jack had his feelings set in an engagement ring with his grandmother’s topaz set between a pair of lambda. He’d kind of hoped it would give him the opening he needed to talk about where things were going with them but Sam had instead taken to avoiding her feelings. Sure she’d said it a couple times when she thought he was sleeping but it was like the Tok’ra had ruined his chances instead of giving him an opening.

Jack sighed in frustration. It had worked out but they had wasted so much time being invested in their issues instead of investing in each other. His trip down memory lane had brought his plodding foot steps to the village. He looked around for the largest building which was usually the local church and headed for it. The residents seemed mildly curious but no one stopped or greeted him.

The church was navicula style, which suggested they had only been here a couple thousand years unless the Christians were wrong and the theme of a boat to salvation predated them. Daniel would probably know. Christianity wasn’t his specialty but he had a fair amount of knowledge on it now. Jack’s only knowledge ran to what he’d ignored in Catechism as a kid and a little Latin from his history classes in the academy. He hadn’t mastered the language until his little time loop incident that he liked to call his Bill Murray experience when he’d also mastered pottery and paid Carter back for sticking her tongue down his throat in the locker room all those years ago. Right in front of George too. That had been the second best part. The best part had been Sam kissing him back right there in the gate room. He hadn’t even gotten to asking her to marry him. It had been why he’d gotten a ring made for her though. Not just the admitting how he felt thing. She loved him back. He’d still been unable to tell her though and she was right to be angry at him for that. He told himself he wouldn’t choose for her but he should have been honest about his feelings and let her decide herself.

He looked up at the Lancet windows and huffed. All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride he muttered to himself. Should have done so sooner. Worry for Sam was making him maudlin and quote long dead Greeks.

A slender woman with long dark hair barely contained by a single clip appeared from around the corner of the church and greeted him. “Well met sir knight. I am hemet of this Qahal. What is it that you seek?” she asked him. Her voice was soothing and warm like melted caramel.


	6. Hope is the Thing with Feathers

**Chapter 6 – Hope is the Thing with Feathers**

“Unscheduled Wormhole Activation” Siler announced. “It’s SG1” after a short pause. Landry looked up and frowned. Something must have gone wrong for Jack and Cam to be back so soon. He doubted very much that they had found Sam already.

Cam came through the puddle alone and it deactivated. He stomped down the ramp. Everything about his body language radiated anger worry and disgust.

“What happened?” Landry asked him over the PA.

“He DITCHED me!” Cam snarled. “The sneaky old bastard DITCHED me.” He all but threw his weapons at the ordinance tech.

Vala and Daniel showed up on Cam’s second proclamation. Neither was in the habit Jack and Sam had been of loitering near the dialing computers. “What do you mean he ditched you?” Daniel demanded.

Cam shoved the note Jack had left into Daniel’s hands “He lifted my knife and pinned it to a tree so I’d see it when I got up.” He snarled in impotent frustration. “How the hell are we supposed to keep him safe if he does crap like that?!” Cam demanded but Daniel was reading the note.

Without a word he handed it to Vala who read it and started laughing. “I told you! You didn’t listen to me Daniel and now he’s gone and done exactly what Jon and Sammy said he’d do.”

By this time Landry had joined them in the gate room. “What’s he done now?” Landry said tiredly. It was bad enough he’d had to tell the president one of his front line Colonels was MIA now he’d lost Jack too. No wonder Jack had hated this job. How had George stood it for seven years. Especially with the way those two acted.

“Oh well the dear general has gone off alone to find his wife because he’d figured out it was his genetics they wanted and decided if Cam was along that they would just kill him straight away.” Vala told him gleefully. “He’s right too. He knows the trap is only for him so he plans to spring it.”

Landry read the note Vala handed him then looked down and shook his head. “Looks like I’m approving your crazy plan after all, Vala.” He turned to the window above the gate. “Siler, recall SG12. I want Barrett on the base within the hour.”

“Sir yes sir.” Siler told him and relayed the information to Walter who would make the phone calls. SG12 was a military and medic unit. Jack was expecting trouble of some kind and he didn’t expect everyone to come back in one piece either by his support team preference.

“Get together what you need. Fill out whatever forms you can. I’ll sign them later. General O’Neill is AWOL but under the circumstances I can ignore his actions. Vala, can you confirm that Jack’s opinion is accurate?”

Vala thought for a moment. “If they couldn’t convert Cam, yes, the Ori would have just killed him. He’s useless.” She affirmed.

“Gee. Thanks.” Cam told her sarcastically as he adjusted a sleeve.

Vala grinned and bounced a bit. “Cam, darling, you are very useful here but to the Ori you are only a hindrance to be corrected. If they didn’t need Sam, they would kill her after catching General O’Neill as well. It would never occur to them to keep her alive so he doesn’t tear the place apart.”

Daniel looked at Vala. “I had no idea you understood him that well.”

“I didn’t. Sammy and Jon filed me in on Jack 101. They didn’t pull any punches either. They told me if I caught up to him before he got to Sam to use her to control him if I had to.”

Daniel raised his eyebrows. “They really didn’t hold back.” He turned to Landry. “I know Teal’c was trying to get some information but it sounds like Jack has a good idea where he’s headed. I’d be happier if we had him with us than relaying data.”

“I agree. I’ll have them dial up the Jaffa and get him home ASAP so he can join you.” Hank told him. “All right everyone, you have about an hour or so before everyone starts getting here. Make yourselves a game plan. Priority one is finding General O’Neill before he gets to where Colonel Carter is being imprisoned. Baring that the goal is rescue them both from the Ori before they use the two of them to create some kind of super orici monstrosity I don’t even want to begin to imagine.” Landry admitted.

Jack’s letter had gotten to the point about what he suspected the Ori had planned and why. He’d left details about how he’d mark his movements so the rest of Sam’s team could catch up with him as quickly as possible but that he’d not wait for them to arrive. If the Ori had them, SG1 and preferably SG12 needed to create a big enough diversion for he and Sam to escape on their own.

Landry was under no delusion that this particular crazy plan would even work. What he did know is that he had a very limited window to get the two of them back because the Ori would not hesitate to use Jack and Sam to create a son that could breed with Adria and create something even worse than Vala’s worship hungry maniac daughter. Jack’s unique genetics combined with both he and Sam having been a former host would provide the Ori an evolutionary boost they wouldn’t otherwise achieve.

Jack and Vala had nearly identical crazy plans but it stood to reason. Half of Vala’s plan had come from Jack’s clone. Daniel hoped Vala was right about the Alterans intervening if the Ori tried to genetically manipulate a baby Sam and Jack created. Jack had the gene but his Alteran ancestor was considerably far back in his genealogy. Jack was effectively human. If they didn’t he hoped the Asgard had a spare ship handy. He could really use Thor showing up right now. Realistically he knew they were very short staffed currently but he kind of hoped owing Sam and Jack several very large favors factored into any decision they made about rerouting resources.

“Right. So,” Vala started. “Jack says he’ll leave us notes in the DHDs as to what he’s learned and what his next stop is. That should make things quicker at least unless he gets a really solid lead to her exact location. Cam, you get with SG12 and make sure they have medical supplies and the weapons they need. Daniel and I will look through what clues we already have and see if we can figure out if there’s a pattern to the route they took or if it’s just random gates to throw us off.”

Cam looked at Landry. “Did you put her in charge?”

Landry shrugged. “She’s the one that talked to Jon and Sammy. If anyone knows how Jack thinks it’s them.”

“Right.” Cam drew the word out but his tone was one of exasperation. “All right. You heard the lady. Let’s get to it people.” Cameron huffed and headed for the infirmary to start coordinating a field medic kit.

“I’ll let you know when the rest of your team arrives.” Hank told Vala and Daniel.

They nodded together and left the gate room for Daniel’s office.

“Daniel. You are being unusually quiet.” Vala prodded him after they had sat down.

He looked at her and frowned. “What am I supposed to say here? That I’m terrified about what the Ori are going to do to them? That the only thing that would rip Jack apart more than what happened to Charlie would be to watch someone destroy his son in front of him? I was there the first time when he felt helpless. They don’t know the kind of rage he has inside of him. Jack will go fully berserk if they succeed in what we think they have planned.”

“He’d really go that mad?”

“Jack was suicidal when I met him the first time. His son had just died and he blamed himself for it. I don’t know that it was really Jack’s fault. I always felt it was more Sara’s for not securing the gun the way she should have in the first place. Jack blamed himself anyway. He loved Sara but not the way he loves Sam. If they do anything to hurt her he’s going to have a mental break.

Jack gives me a lot of credit for bringing him back from the edge but it was Sam that was there for him the most. Instead of babbling at him like I do she just listened to the little random comments he’d make while she worked, tell him she understood. Cassie helped too, she was jut about the age Charlie would have been but it was Sam that made the difference and I think that’s a big part of the reason Jack fell so hard for her.

Sam smoothed over all that anger and pain and rage like the surface of the sea.”

“And you think without her it’s all just going to boil back up to the surface again and he’ll be as much a danger to himself as he is to the Ori.” She said.

“I think he’d be worse honestly. He’d feel like they stole his future from him and he’d be a very different Jack at that point. Not just the bitter angry withdrawn asshole I met before Abydos. He’d be out for vengeance. He finally has what he’s always wanted and if they rip that away from him he’s going to lose his shit in a big way.”

“Well then, we had better work on a plan that prevents that from happening. I’m all for taking out the Ori but not at the expense of losing the only female friend I’ve ever had.”

“Yah I’m not into the idea of losing my two best friends either.” Daniel said frowning

“Sam is smart. If we can create a diversion they should be able to get out on their own, right?”

“Well yah. Both of them should. Jack got out of Ba’al’s prison on his own with nothing but a diversion.”

“Then we should think of the biggest diversion we can manage that the Ori cannot ignore.”

“Right. What do we know so far?” He sifted through some papers.

“We know they did not take her to Celestis because they don’t want Adria to know about it yet.”

“You think they are hiding it from her?”

“She’d be obsolete with a new super orici. You think she’d really knowingly give up her control for the greater good?”

“Oh. Good point. We might have a civil war brewing.”

“That’s a distinct possibility.” Vala said with dark amusement.

“Which I’d be all for if it wasn’t my friends being used against their will to do it.” Daniel said angrily.

“Agreed.”

They went over the rest of the details they had until Daniel’s phone rang. Most of SG12 was now on base, they were just waiting on Teal’c’s return. Randomly Daniel heard Jack’s voice in his head tell him ‘Avengers assemble’ and he smiled grimly.


	7. Taken By The Wind

**Chapter 7 – Taken By The Wind**

A slender woman with long wavy dark hair barely contained by a single clip appeared from around the corner of the church and greeted Jack. “Well met, sir knight. I am hemet of this Qahal. What is it that you seek?” she asked him. Her voice was soothing and warm like melted caramel.

Jack looked at her and reflexively took off his CBC. “Hemet, hi, I’m Jack O’Neill and I was wondering if I might make a donation in exchanged for some clothing out of your charity box.”

She chuckled. “Oh dear. Have they forgotten so soon? But it has been some time.” She shook her head. “Hemet is my title. Perhaps Daniel has not taught you this?”

Jack blinked. Did he know this woman? Why would she mention Daniel so casually? “Do we know each other?”

She tilted her head and smiled. “Hm, perhaps, though I think you may not know that it is me. No matter. Come. You are in need of food and I think rest.” She held up a hand as he opened his mouth. “It is not so urgent as you fear. It is you they seek. Your wife remains safe.”

Jack narrowed his eyes. “You’re Alteran.” He finally said.

“Hm. No. I am… something else.” She shrugged. “You are safe here, General Jack O’Neill of the Tau’ri, though that is not my name for your people nor I think your own.”

Jack hesitated, his gut said he could trust her but his brain just wanted to get some local clothes and go find Sam.

“She is safe for now Jack.” The woman said as though she had read his mind.

“You seem very confident.”

“Well, I cannot see the future but I can see the now. She is safe and will stay that way until your arrival. Then the clock will begin to tick.”

“You know where she is.” Jack felt the first hope he had in days.

“I do, yes. I will help you get to her but there is only so much I can do. I am no more a fan of the Ori as you are and it is not because I desire worship.”

Jack sighed. “It’s like talking to Oma.”

She chuckled again. “Hm. Perhaps, thought you will find me far more of use. I can undo mistakes I make after all. Mostly” She grinned and Jack grinned back without realizing it. “I am Inah, hemet of this Qahal. Come eat and I will explain what I can.” She turned and walked behind the Qahal as she called the small church to a garden where a meal was laid out for two people. “Please sit.” She clapped and a young woman came from a door, bringing a pitcher of water. “Yakara, be a dear and find some clothing more in keeping with the style of this general star system. He wishes to be less noticeable.” She grinned.

“Perhaps he should hide his face then.” Yakara said jovially.

“Save your flirting for men who are not soul joined already. This one is not for you.” She told the girl with a kind smile.

“I know mistress but he glows. It’s nice.”

Inah broke into a broad grin. “He has exceeded our hopes yes. We still need him a bit though.”

“I’m right here you know.” Jack said grumpily as he looked at the very familiar looking tea sandwiches. “So you aren’t a fan of the Ori but they aren’t here. Any particular reason they avoid you?”

Yakara laughed as though Jack had said something hilarious. “Oh they might dare but they would not stay long.”

Inah tisked at her. “Manners dear.” She looked back at Jack and sat across from him. “Yakara speaks over much. It is true the Ori would not come here more than once. I cannot fight them directly but I’m not restricted from thwarting them either. I will not allow them to create a being that only I can destroy.” Her voice had taken on a quiet fury.

“Wait so you could destroy the Ori if you wanted to?” Jack asked.

“My dear I could destroy everything if I wanted to and that’s the problem. My power isn’t finite enough. Any action I take directly will not destroy only the evil but the good too. I can however touch with divine inspiration and breath hope into the hearts of those in despair.” She smiled in a way that made Jack smile back reflexively.

“The Ori will be stopped. Even now I inspire the one who can end the war to take action. Your wife has a role to play in this as well. Adria does not know what her Priors are planning for you. It is possible she would not submit as she enjoys her power but it is not a chance I wish to take.”

“You might not be Alteran but you talk in riddles like one.” Jack told her around a mouthful of his extremely good sandwich.

“Yes dear one. I know. It is difficult to know how much I can tell you that will be useful and how much will only confuse you.” She grinned. “That will not work by the way.”

“What?” Jack asked startled.

“I know it is habit so I will not fuss at you about it but the dumb routine will not work. Much like your wife I know you far too well. I can see why she finds you amusing however.” Inah said with a grin. “It is cute.”

Jack tried to glower but Inah was too... likeable to take offense. She was teasing him the same way Sam did. Treating him like an equal when he strongly suspected whatever she was, it wasn’t his equal. Oma wasn’t even her equal. She made him feel… safe. Like he did as a kid around his mom or grandma.

Inah’s eyes it up when he thought about his mom. “Very much like that yes.” she told him cryptically. “Only more so.”

“You know it’s bad enough my wife can read my mind.” Jack told her.

“Ah but be glad that she cannot or she would be kicking your shins far more under the briefing table over the years then she had.” Inah broke out in rather girlish giggles. “I like her very much. I am glad you found each other.”

“Yah. Me too.” He replied honestly.

“Your plan is a sound one though your spouse will think you crazy. Your team has come up with a similar plan with your own help. They will be there when you need them.”

“My team is supposed to be caring for my daughter.”

“She is in safe hands. In fact, far safer than you had planned. She will not be found by your enemies while you are gone. The brave one has her and will keep her safe.” She grinned.

“Brave one huh.”

“Sorry, I tend to translate when perhaps I should not and then not when I should? The knight Amos.”

“Wilson? Wilson has her? That’s a terrible idea. Now Sammy isn’t safe either.” He growled.

“On the contrary she could not have made a safer choice. Sir Amos’ brother is one whom you know and has access to many who would swiftly descend on anyone who dares harm her. It was your other self who agreed to this plan”

“Hm. Didn’t think of it that way. You’re sure she’s safe? That all three of them are safe?”

“Entirely. It is not a girl offspring which they seek but a male one. There are others who might seek her but that is not for some time. You were wise to hide her connection to you.” She told him.

“It was strictly out of self preservation.” He admitted.

“Oh we both know better than that.” She told him laughing. “Cannot stop yourself, can you?”

“Pardon?” he said entirely out of habit.

She laughed harder. “If you were not so important, I would keep you around Jack. I have not been so amused in some time. However, you need rest now Your journey will not be much longer as I shall give you a shortcut but you will need your wits about you once you arrive.”


	8. Dreams Unwind

**Chapter 8 – Dreams Unwind**

“So they just dropped her off?” Lynn asked shocked. She was flopped on Sammy’s bed reading a graphic novel about super sailor girls.

“Yup. Brought over most of her stuff and took off. No idea how long we will have her either.”

“Well that’s rude.”

Sammy shrugged. She hated not being able to tell her best fried the truth about Gracie. That her parents were missing and that evil religious nut aliens might be doing unspeakable things to them right this very moment. “At least she’s safe here. Aunt Mary set up a play area in the basement so she can work and watch her at the same time.”

“Your aunt is super nice to do that. My mom would have agreed, made me do most of the work, then held it over their head after, not paid me and probably told me I was bad at babysitting.” She put down her book and really looked at the chubby toddler. “I bet your kids will look just like her.” She observed.

“Wah… why do you say that?” Sammy stammered.

“Similar bone structure. Give her brown eyes and she’d be the perfect mix of you and Jon.” She flashed a grin knowing it would make her best friend blush profusely. Sammy had stopped denying she had feelings for Jon but that didn’t stop Lynn from giving her crap for it.

“Jon and I are not having babies any time soon.” Sammy finally sputtered and immediately regretted it.

“HA! So you admit you want to make babies with Jon! I knew it.” Lynn told her smugly.

“I hate you.” Sammy told her but she was laughing. It wasn’t Lynn’s fault that she was a perceptive person. Janet had been too and with far fewer clues. Sammy was pretty obvious about it on days she was honest with herself. Of course she wanted babies with Jon. In about ten years when he had a commission and she had a degree or two and they were ready to be parents. Much as she’d like to go into the Air Force again she’d already decided the complications weren’t worth it and it would raise too many questions about her past if she applied. She’d be able to work her way into military R&D easily enough with her skills without having captain attached to her name.

“Get in line.” Lynn told her flipping another page in her book.

“Not everyone hates you.” Sammy told her.

“Brian does.” She said softly, her voice bitter.

“What? Why do you think that?!” she demanded and bounced Gracie until she giggled.

“He avoids me like I have leprosy.”

“No he doesn’t.” Sammy said firmly but she knew that wasn’t entirely true. Brian did avoid Lynn but not for the reason Lynn thought. Brian knew about Lynn’s home life and he also knew if he acted even remotely interested even as a friend that her mom would go out of her way to ruin it. He’d told Jon who had of course told Sammy that Brian had it very bad for Lynn and was trying to keep things under control until they went off to college so he could hopefully date her then. It was only a couple years after all.

“Don’t spare my feelings Sam. He doesn’t like me back.” Lynn said, her chin mutinously askance.

Sammy decided something right then and there. Confidence or not Lynn deserved to know. “Lynn. Lynn, look at me.” Sammy ordered her.

“What?”

“Brian is in love with you.”

“What. No he’s not. He can’t stand to be anywhere near me. He literally flinches if I brush up against him on accident.”

Sammy sighed. “He does that because he knows how your mom is and that if he shows any interest in you at all right now that she will totally screw everything up and he’ll lose any chance he has of it being more than a high school thing. Touching you is literally killing him because he can’t do anything about how he feels”

“Wait, you’re not kidding are you?”

“Nope. And he knows you have feelings for him but since your mom tries to manipulate you all the time he’s afraid to let on how he feels because she knows how to twist things into something ugly just to hurt you.”

“That’s why he stopped coming when I have people over.” She said sadly. She’d only invited everyone over a couple times, her mom had gotten all excited about her having friends then humiliated her in front of them. She had no idea Jon had taken Brian aside and talked him down from getting up into Lynn’s mom’s face about it.

“Yup. It was that or punch her in the face for the way she treats you. I told you when we met that Brian hates the mean girl routine. Your mom is the poster child of mean girls. She tries really hard to isolate you and I’m kind of shocked she’s let you have the group of us over unless it’s because it’s a group and the only people you have over individually are girls.”

“It’s because you are super nerdy. Trust me she resents how pretty you are. I’m just glad you aren’t into dressing up because then she’d be worse. Lynn, you’d be so pretty if you did something with your hair like Sammy does. You’d be so pretty if you took some interest in your clothes… you’d be so pretty if you lost a few pounds.”

Sammy gave her friend a sympathetic look. “Looks aren’t everything Lynn, and even if they were you are already pretty. Your hair is ridiculously gorgeous and you have the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen.”

“Mom made me keep it short as a kid. I looked like a boy. I didn’t even know it was wavy until I put my foot down and stopped letting her tell her hairdresser how she wanted it. She used to make me get these awful perms when I started growing it out. I looked like a poodle.” Lynn said with a sneer.

“Your mom has some major issues.”

“That’s not a news flash Sammy.” Lynn told her dryly. “So what’s with that grubby doll Gracie won’t let go of.”

“Aunt Mary made it out of her mom’s pillow cases so it would smell like her.” Sammy smiled. Jon had called Walter, told him where Jack kept the spare key to his house and asked him to get both the pillowcases off Sam and Jack’s bed and put them in a zip bag for him for Grace. She’d done nothing but fuss until she fell asleep exhausted then wake up fussing again looking for her parents for two days. Everyone at the Amos house was dropping with fatigue.

Jon had gone to the base to pick them up and then brought them to school under his jacket. He’d pulled her aside between classes and slid them out from under his sweater and wrapped his warm hands around hers while he told her what they were. She’d been so relieved without thinking she’d thrown her arms around his neck, called him her life saver, kissed him full on the lips in front of an entire hallway of kids then told him she loved him before taking off for class among the cheering throng of students who had witnessed the whole thing.

She’d taken a lot of teasing the rest of the day and Jon had blushed to his ears every time she’d glanced at him the rest of the day too. In retrospect it hadn’t been entirely wise under the circumstances but Mary had later that day graciously followed Jon’s directions not to wash them before cutting them up into a rag doll from the pieces. He’d been right. She’d gotten one whiff of the doll, clutched it tightly and not let go of it since. It smelled just enough of Jack and Sam to comfort the girl. Of course Mary had also gotten a call from the school about Sammy’s ‘conduct’ that day that Mary had assured them she’d talk to her foster daughter about when she got home.

Said conversation involved try to remember you are thirteen dear, and Sammy blushing but unable to stop grinning. Mary had just laughed and shook her head.

“That’s really thoughtful. Has it helped?”

“Oh yah. She wouldn’t stop crying once she realized her mom wasn’t around at all.”

“You would think she’d have been used to it if her mom is an addict.”

Sammy shook her head. “She’s actually a good mom other than that. She’ll be glad we have Gracie and not someone else. Aunt Mary is like, super mom.” Sammy said with a chuckle.

“Compared to mine every mom is super mom.” Lynn said ironically.

“Ok, no argument there. My dad was difficult but he wasn’t mean on purpose.”

“You don’t talk about your parents much.” Lynn observed.

Sammy shrugged. “Mom died a long time ago. Dad wasn’t around a lot. There’s not much to tell.”

Lynn nodded. Sammy wasn’t willing to talk abut that yet. Fair enough. “So he really does like me?” She asked.

“He started falling for you when he met you but what really did it was the day at your mom’s and she was getting on your case about something and he started to get upset because you wouldn’t defend yourself at all but when she finally left you flipped her off with both fingers to her back. You only take it because it’s the quickest way to shut her up without her making your life more miserable.”

“He fell in love with me because I flipped off my mom.” She said with a snort.

“Well, and you have really beautiful eyes.”

“He told you that, huh?”

“No. He told Jon that.”

“Ohhhh….”


	9. Chasing Waterfalls

**Chapter 9 – Chasing Waterfalls**

Jack woke up later that afternoon in a warm sunlit room. He’d been dreaming about sitting on a grassy flower speckled hill with Sam. It had been a sweet and idyllic dream of them just enjoying each other and the warm afternoon sunshine together. It had felt extraordinarily real for a dream. He’d heard insects buzzing around them, smelled the familiar combination of freshly crushed grass under them and flowers and slightly moist soil. The yarn of her sweater had been soft and silken as had her skin. He sighed. He needed to go find her. Inah had insisted he rest and he’d felt oddly tired after his sandwich and ice cold glass of very sweet water. Yakara had been instructed to show him to a room in a small cottage behind the church. It was a homey sort of place and he suspected he’d slept in Inah’s bed. She didn’t seem like the kind of woman who would mind.

Jack got up and discovered he felt refreshed. His body that had ached from sleeping on the ground for three days no longer felt sore or tired. Whatever magic the woman had used on him; he’d gladly take it. He picked up his vest off the chair he’d set it on and went outside to the garden where Inah was sitting smiling at her flowers.

Years ago he’d have found her to be a bit odd and treated her with the gentleness he did children. Experience with beings vastly older than himself had taught him that her odd ways were the natural progression of extraordinary wisdom. She could be several hundred or several thousand years old and he had no way of knowing without asking directly and something told him she didn’t measure time the way he did.

She turned and smiled at him. Her eyes crinkled at the corners in perpetual humor. “You have grown wise in recent years.” She told him simply and he scowled at her perplexed.

“Can you really read my mind or are you just guessing.”

“Forty two.” She said with a laugh. “Is that answer enough?” she replied to the number he’d thought of before asking the inevitable question. “It’s right too. It is anything you want it to be. I rather like that author.”

“Fine. You can read minds. Read Sam’s.”

“I do not need to. She worries for you and looks for ways to escape before you reach her. She knows you will come.” She touched a bloom and sniffed it for a moment. “Your friends follow your instructions. You will have your distraction. I have something for you which you will need. Come.” And she waived him forward through the winding garden paths until they came to a low building with a thatched roof. Inside looked and smelled like an apothecary. Drying plants hung from pegs on the wall and bottles lined shelves with neatly written labels in a language he did not recognize. She waved her hand absently and suddenly he could read the labels. Jack blinked a couple times.

“Neat trick.” He admitted.

She smiled. “The language matters not. It is merely a placeholder.”

“Right. So what is this you are going to give me?”

“The Ori use a stun weapon much like your Goa'uld zat’nik’tel. I have a compound that will help you fight its effects.”

“That’s handy.”

“I agree. It is… handy.” She smiled. “It will give you the opportunity to observe your surroundings unnoticed. You will not make it to your wife without being discovered unfortunately. She is too well guarded and the building far too large with few blind corners. You must take care to only be shot once. The compound will negate almost all of the effects of a single shot and most of two shots. It will not work at all against three shots.”

“Any chance we could study this stuff later?”

“It will not prove as useful as you hope. There is a price for using it. Your liver will be unduly taxed after it’s use and you will need medical care if you use it more than once in a three month period.”

“That sounds unpleasant.” He agreed.

She nodded. “It is. You will need to inject the compound into your tissue before you begin trying to get into the prison. You must not take in anything you believe you will need later. The Ori will incinerate your belongings. Take only your stun weapon. They will take it from you but might choose to keep it for study. Otherwise when you escape you will need to overpower a pair of guards and take their stun weapons from them.”

“I think Carter and I can handle that.” Jack said with an amused half smile.

She picked up a jar and dug around in a drawer for a syringe barrel. Once she’d located one in safety packaging she opened it and added the fluid from the jar until it hit the dosage amount she wanted. She screwed the end fitting back on and slid it back into the safety packaging.

Jack looked at it in her hands then around the herb scented room. “You’re a priestess who just happens to have modern medical supplies.” He said doubtfully.

“I have what is needed when it is needed.” She told him simply and he believed her. She needed one so she had one. He bet his hazard pay from his first year with the SGC that she would literally have anything she needed simply because she needed it. She nodded at him in amusement.

Jack felt simultaneously soothed by her gentleness with him and disconcerted that it was exactly the technique he used on little kids to put them at their ease. He gave Inah the side eye and caught her eyes laughing at him in amusement.

“I don’t suppose you have any big honking space guns I could use to blow them up with after I find Carter do you.” He said sulkily.

She shook her head. “Sorry. Fresh out.” She grinned. The longer he was here the more normal she seemed to talk, as if it had been years or even decades since she’d had human interaction.

Jack made a humming noise. “It was worth a shot.” He said hopefully.

She looked up at the ceiling of her apothecary and shook her head as if in supplication to save her from O’Neill humor. “Are you always like this?”

“Usually. Yah.”

“Your wife has my sympathies.” She told him but she grinned, taking the sting out of her words. She wasn’t unamused. It was just constant and therefore tiresome when one needed to be serious. She knew though that it was his coping mechanism. However much she calmed him he was unable to completely be at peace until he knew himself Sam was safe and home. Jack O’Neill was a man of deep emotions. When he loved, he loved entirely. She worried the Ori would use that to control him and hoped their arrogance would lead them to make stupid mistakes or better, make assumptions about his reactions. She had read his heart. This was a man whose fire was an inferno when his emotions overwhelmed him. How he’d held his feelings in check about his wife for as many years as he had was a minor miracle. All Inah could do is give him the tools to accomplish his goal. That fire would have to drive him to success. As he’d proven for years that it did she had no doubts he’d been the right choice.

Inah was not, after all, above meddling when it suited her.

She patted his arm affectionately. “You should get your things together. I will give you your next direction, from there you will find where they have taken her.”

Jack nodded and slipped the syringe into a pocket of his vest. After he’d left to change and gather his things Yakara joined Inah in the apothecary. “Is he ready?”

“Are they ever truly?” Inah replied.

“Why do you always do this? A single being against impossible odds.”

“Because that is the way that works best for them most often. He would not have it any other way regardless.”

“You think not?”

“I have read his heart. He sees himself as disposable.”

“Yet he is not.”

“Humility of the heart to the point of self sacrifice for others is a most noble emotion.”

“How many lifetimes must he sacrifice?”

Inah smiled. “He does not sacrifice this one. Samantha will be his salvation.”

“Yet it has been filled with immeasurable amounts of pain by his standards.”

“It had to be. Only through tempering can the sword withstand it’s foe.”

Yakara shook her head. “He deserves peace.”

“He shall have it in due time. As reward for being an instrument of mine.”

“You do this yet never ask them to follow you.”

“What need have I of followers? Would you have your blood worship you for its being?”

Yakara shook her head.

“And so my blood does not worship me. It flows as it will and as I need it. So too does his. His people have earned the right to grow for all their flaws and evils. Extermination should not be their reward for curiosity.”

“I know. I was there. I will see to his needs and let you know when he is ready to leave.”

“Thank you, dear. Your help is as always appreciated. You must hurry. His people are not far behind him and it is better they do not catch up with him here.”

“You just don’t like explaining yourself.”

“In my place would you have the words?”

“In your place I would lure Adria and any remaining Goa'uld here and crush them.” Yakara replied.

“If only it would be that easy. I have my limitations as well. There is more at stake than a few evils. Good must know it has the power to prevail.”

“Ah. So now we come to your true reason.”

“Of course.” And Inah smiled and winked. “It has ever been so.”

Yakara chuckled and excused herself to help Jack prepare to leave.


	10. The Winds Thy Sighs

**Chapter 10 - The Winds Thy Sighs**

Daniel and Cameron stood off to the side. Everyone was loaded up and ready to go. Vala was talking softly to Teal’c, getting him up to speed. The large man was still acting agitated over the situation. He felt responsible for the loss of Colonel Carter on many levels. She was his commanding officer, she was his friend, she was his brother’s wife. He’d appointed himself her personally bodyguard after the Simarka incident. She had hidden her injuries well but Janet Frasier had given her many stitches where Turghan had whipped her. Stopping, she had admitted, only when she finally cried out in pain several lashes into her beating.

Since that moment Teal’c had made sure the then captain was never alone on a strange planet. O’Neill had made the same determination and if one was not with her the other was until later years when Jackson had also been able to provide effective protection. Sam was a formidable warrior but men had a habit of ganging up on a woman to subdue her and even with her great skills Colonel Carter could not overcome overwhelming odds every time.

He should not have left her alone even if the situation seemed safe. Clearly it had not been. After her capture he had gone to get information on where the Ori might be hiding her after it was determined she was not on Celestis. That had been a most unpleasant mission and had cost them time in looking for Colonel Carter. Teal’c understood O’Neill’s desperation. Every additional day she was gone it was more likely that she would be or was already being harmed. Such a situation was not tolerable and Teal’c had been very tempted to run off to help find Colonel Carter instead of working to find where they had her after it was determined she wasn’t on the Ori homeworld.

Only his sense of duty and O’Neill’s personal request that he continue to try to track down her location through the free Jaffa had preventing him from joining in his mad quest. O’Neill would not have ‘ditched’ Teal’c the way he had Colonel Mitchell. In the event that he tried Teal’c would have quickly caught on and prevented the event. Of that he was certain. Mitchell had technically been in command of their unit but in reality Teal’c and Daniel only took direct orders from Carter and Vala only ever listened to Daniel Jackson. That left Mitchell with a team that only worked if he was willing to have a democracy. He’d compromised for the sake of the team.

“All right muscles, so, that’s the situation so far. Have you got any questions?” Vala finally asked him after her lengthy description of the events of the last couple days.

“I do not, Vala Mal Doran.” He told her.

Vala nodded. “All right then. Let’s gear up and go get them.” She was unusually subdued. She knew exactly what would happen to Sam if their plan failed and she was deeply concerned for the other woman for many reasons. Sam was a strong person and could survive personal hardship and loss, torture, pain, all manner of abuse. This though would be on a level she had never experienced. The only way Vala was dealing with her daughter being what she had become was by telling herself she would have been that person regardless and that the little girl she had given birth to wasn’t alive anymore. She may as well have died after she was born. The Ori had twisted her so deeply at such an early age that there had never been any hope for her from the start.

She couldn’t bear to see Sam go through the same thing nor could she face General O’Neill who she just adored being tortured with the loss of yet another son. He’d sacrificed so much already, suffered so much pain and for what? To lose the one thing Vala could see he’d always in his heart of hearts had wanted. A family to love. A family with Sam. She couldn’t stand the idea of that being stripped away from him. She might not have felt as deeply if she didn’t love Daniel the way she did. Jack was Daniel’s first genuine friend and, admit it or not, one hundred percent of the reason Daniel was alive and well.

She saw Jack through Daniel’s eyes. A brother. A best friend. A man of deep honor who had sacrificed having a loving family for the safety of his world. A man Daniel deeply loved and respected. A man who took as much joy in teasing Daniel as she did and that was what had been the final nail in the coffin. His silly enjoyment of teasing the man she loved. Not that she’d be admitting that any time soon. It was enough that this was the first time she had friends who cared about her for her own sake and she’d be damned if some crazy religious nut took that away from her. Especially one she’d given birth to. There was such a thing as going too far.

Vala walked over to Cam and Landry. “Everything all set?” She asked them.

Landry nodded. “SG-12 is getting geared up while we wait. The MALP is loaded up. Your first stop is Dakara. Master Bra’tac has a tel’tak prepping for you. SG-1 will use the gate to catch up with General O’Neill. Meanwhile SG-12 will be on standby with the tel’tak and their medical supplies along with additional ordinance. While SG-1 does recon work SG-12 will fly to catch up. You will be about two days behind O’Neill to begin with but hopefully you can shave some time off that. With any luck you will reach him before he implements an infiltration plan but if you have not you will need to make as big of a nuisance of yourselves as you can so they can escape on their own. Any questions?”

“Sir. What do we do if SG-1 is unable to secure a foothold?” Smithers asked.

“Then you blow something up from the air, Smithers. Any other questions?” Landry asked in exasperation. He looked around. “All right then, SG-1, SG-12, let’s get our people home.” He backed away from the gate ramp and waved his hand at Siler to dial out.

“Chevron seven locked” Siler announced and the familiar blue kawoosh flared out and settled into a pool of blue light. “Good luck, SG-1” He said.

Cameron saluted him and followed the MALP up with Teal’c, Daniel and Vala behind them and SG-12 behind them. Ten grim faces marched through the event horizon of the wormhole. Landry’s heart went with them.


	11. Your Eyes Like Sapphires

**Chapter 11 – Your Eyes Like Sapphires**

Sam lifted her head from the pillow when she heard the door open again. Expecting to see her usual maid appear she was surprised at the appearance of a second woman dressed in shades of grey with what was clearly a perpetual frown.

“Hallowed are the Ori. You will undress.” The frowning woman ordered her.

“I beg your pardon?”

“You will undress. Bathe. Then you will wear the clothing we have provided you.” She barked.

“I’ve already bathed and these clothes are fine.” Sam said calmly though she had a sneaking suspicion this woman would not hesitate to force her to do things. How ironic that she had none of the things that would ensure her cooperation. Sam wasn’t afraid of a little pain. She’d been tortured before and she got the distinct impression they wanted her on one piece for reasons they had chosen not to explain. Sam was nearly positive she wasn’t going to like that reason when she found out what it was.

The woman in grey stood before her and glared balefully. Sam stared her down and in a movement that later Sam would admit she wasn’t expecting, the older woman hooked her hand in the top of Sam’s shirt and tore it open top to bottom. Sam’s jaw dropped in abject shock. Then Sam punched her.

The grey dressed woman toppled backwards and Sam’s regular maid threw her hands to her mouth in shock and, Sam suspected, nervous giggles.

“Don’t touch me.” Sam snarled. But it was too late. Her only shirt was now a ripped mess. She sighed and looked at the woman who usually brought her food. “How do I put this thing on?” she nodded at the clothing now on the bed and asked her in disgust.

The maid nodded and led her to the bathroom to help her change. “Mistress Taynu will be very angry when she awakens” the woman who had finally told Sam her name was Heneta.

“I’m pretty angry she destroyed my only shirt. If she thinks I’m taking off my pants she’s out of her mind. I will literally kill her if she tries.” Sam said in annoyance.

“I don’t doubt it, mistress Sam, but she will make things difficult for you if you are not careful.” She said as she helped pull the chemise over Sam’s shoulders.

“I’m already a prisoner. It’s pretty apparent she’s not allowed to torture me and apparently your masters want me healthy and clean so short of taking my bed and making me sleep on the floor or reading me Vogon poetry which would suit her frankly there’s not much else she can do.” Sam shrugged as Heneta helped her with the blue linen kirtle and tied the sides for her.

“You do not seem over concerned with your confinement, m’lady.” Heneta told her.

Sam shrugged. “I’m not going to be here that long.” She told her.

“So you say mistress, but here you are unable to escape this fortress and your champion does not come.” The woman shrugged and Sam had to admit that for now she had a point. So far there had been no sign that anyone from SG-1 had discovered her whereabouts Heneta confirmed several days ago that she was the only prisoner. Sam was mildly concerned as it had already been over a week that she knew of for sure, probably slightly more as she’d had vague flashes of memory of being transported by ship and being re-sedated more than once when she became combative with her guards.

Sam smiled and shrugged in agreement. “They will come.” She told her as they came out of the bathroom.

Heneta shook her head. “I will bring in your meal.” She stepped around Taynu.

“Thanks I-” but Sam never finished what she was about to say. Administrator Ghana entered the room and looked down at Taynu laying on the floor, a black bruise rapidly blooming on her jaw. Two of his usual silent toadies followed him in.

“Hallowed are the Ori. I see that you are now dressed more appropriately.”

Thankfully the kirtle hid her BDU pants that Sam had refused to part with. She’d been washing her underpants and turning them the other way when they dried every morning. “Depends on your point of view.”

“Why is this servant prostate thus?” He jerked his head at Taynu.

“We didn’t agree on fashion.” Sam told him. Somewhere in the back of her head she realized her husband had rubbed off on her at some point. She smirked in amusement and that was yet another thing she had her husband to thank for. Irreverence in the face of imminent doom.

Administrator Ghana glared at her and Sam shrugged. “You will learn your place, woman.”

“I doubt it.” She answered him truthfully.

Suddenly he leaned forward and sneered. “No matter. Soon you will fulfill your divine purpose with us. Even now the time draws near.” His fetid breath washed over Sam and she wrinkled her nose. Clearly he thought toothbrushes were against his religion.

“I don’t suppose you’d like to fill me in. I’ve been a bit out of the loop for a couple weeks here.”

Admin Ghana pulled himself to his full portly balding height which was still considerably shorter than Sam. “Why of course. You will be the vessel.”

“The vessel of what.” She demanded.

“Of your salvation.” He grinned. His rotting teeth yellow and brown.

“Right. How do you plan on that?” she asked, pointedly standing at her full height and crossing her arms over her chest.

Ghana laughed. “When my masters created the orici, they did a great thing but she is not infallible. She is flawed both by her gender and her failings. You will be the vessel of he who will be mated with the orici to create the suzerain orici. All will supplicate themselves at his feet.” He told her smugly.

Sam looked at him horrified. They wanted her to do WHAT? “Yah I’m going to have to take a pass on that one. I’m married already.”

“That is of no consequence to us. Divine purpose supersedes marital vows. Hallowed are the Ori.”

Sam rolled her eyes. Typical religious. Rules are everything until they want something that breaks them then it’s god’s will. What a freaking shock. “Look, I’m sure you guys think this is a great idea but how do you know you will even be able to control this suzerain anyway? Last I heard you don’t have much control over Adria.”

“You will know your place woman.” Ghana told her threateningly as he raised his hand to backslap her but Sam didn’t even flinch. He lowered his hand as though thinking better of the action.

Sam was beginning to suspect they were not allowed to harm her in any way as long as she didn’t try to leave her room. Ghana had threatened to hit her before but held back even though he had hit Heneta when Sam did not comply with his wishes.

The sound of something large being dragged came from the hallway.

“Ah! Now we may prepare for your true purpose. Even now the manner of your service is brought to us.” He said with a malicious glee that made Sam’s skin crawl.

Two guards dragged in a tall man in torn clothing that was filthy and tattered like he’d been crawling through mud, or worse by the smell. His head hung between his shoulders and dirt crusted his hair. They dropped him face down in an unceremonious unconscious heap on the floor in front of Admin Ghana who nodded at the guards. “Take the servant away and have her whipped.” He told them of Taynu.

“Hallowed are the Ori.” The guards said together.

“Hallowed are the Ori.” Ghana repeated. “See that he bathes.” He told Sam and Ghana let out an unpleasant bark of a laugh before motioning the maid and his personal guards to leave dragging the older woman between them. “Your servant will bring you both meals though I do not expect him to awaken for some time.” The door boomed behind him like the seal of fate.

Sam looked down at the man then crouched next to him. Clearly he was as much a victim as she was. Perhaps they could come to some kind of agreement and find a way out of this place. She gently lifted his shoulder so she could roll him on his side to get a look at her new cell mate.

“Are they gone?” he whispered.

“Oh my god! Jack?!”

He rolled further onto is side and looked up at her with bleary eyes. “I thought I’d never see you again.” He admitted.

Sam stared at him in utter shock. Her hand came out to cup his face to make sure he was real and then she sat down in a heap of linen skirts and started sobbing.

“And here I thought you would be happy to see me.” He quipped.

“I am” she sniffled.

“Ok. Good.” He let out a sigh though and shook his head, unable to clear the cobwebs from it.

“If they gave you the same stuff they did me it’s going to take a while to wear off.” She told him.

“Stunned me but yah, I think they injected me with something too because I couldn’t quite stay focused even with Inah’s stimulant shot.”

“You need rest but I think you need a bath first. You’re covered in mud and… something that doesn’t smell very good.”

“Yup. Found a back door.” He agreed with a satisfied grin.

She helped him up and supported his weight in case his legs gave out while she led him to the bathroom. Once he was sitting on the toilet she ran the bath water. “Do you need help getting undressed?”

“Probably.” He admitted.

Sam poured some of the bergamot oil into the warm bath water then a couple drops of the musk.

“This is pretty nice for a prison.” He said looking around at the bathroom.

“Food is pretty good too. Apparently I’ll need my strength.”

“That sounds ominous.”

Sam nodded. Now that she knew what they had in mind it was still ominous but not in the same way. Jack would never force her to have sex so clearly they had something that would make one or both of them unable to resist the desire to do so. It was better than a stranger and a lot better than rape but Vala had told her what the Ori had done to Adria. Jack would be uncontrollable if they did that to his son.

“Bath smells good.” He told her trying to get out of his dirty clothing. Some of the ties were drawn so tight from being wet and dried again more than once that she finally gave up and tore them off.

“One of the perks of them wanting a healthy baby. Nice food, running water, towels.” She told him as she helped him get into the warm bath water.

“Oh great. Just what I always wanted. A fancy prison cell.”

“Right” she chuckled and used a cloth to wet his hair so she could wash it for him.

“This is cozy.” He said sleepily.

“Stay awake until you’re out of the bath. I’m pretty sure I can’t lift you and I don’t think you are going to want to sleep here.”

“Ok. Good point.” Jack yawned though. “Mitchell is wrong. I’m going to sleep for about a week.” He chuckled. “pinned my adios note with his own knife. Lifted it off him hours before he noticed.” He told her with a smug sleepy smile. “If he follows orders, we just have to wait for the earth-shattering kaboom.”

Sam carefully rinsed the dirty soapy water out of Jack’s hair and re-lathered it to get the rest of the grime out. “Let’s get you cleaned up, then you can sleep it off and brief me in the morning.”

“M’k. I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too Jack. I wasn’t sure I was going to see you ever again either.” She admitted.

“Good thing you married a guy who can break into anywhere then, isn’t it?”

“Moderately. You did get yourself captured.” She told him as she rinsed his hair again. This time it was clean. He’d scrubbed off the rest of the dirt on him by himself so she drained the tub and grabbed the spray head so he could rinse off any residue from the scummy water.

“Inah was right. I never would have gotten past all the guards and gotten you out too. Got captured on purpose Carter.” His voice was starting to slur more so she helped dry him off and led him to the bed in the middle of the room.

Heneta had turned down the covers earlier so she helped him slide between the sheets and watched him sag into almost immediate sleep.

Ten minutes later Heneta came back with their meals. “The master said he would not be awake but I see that he has bathed so he must have fought the sleep drug until he knew where he was.”

Sam decided if she didn’t know who Jack was, she wasn’t going to bring it up. “He fell asleep immediately. I woke him up so he wouldn’t get mud all over the bed.”

“I will sweep up the mess and bring him fresh clothing on the morrow mistress. Admin Ghana will bring the Prior to examine your womb to determine when it shall ripen.”

Sam sighed. Of course he would. That’s just great she thought.


	12. By Any Other Name

**Chapter 12 – By Any Other Name**

Sammy sat propped on her bed, the lavender and yellow throw pillows behind her and her laptop on a breakfast tray off to one side. Grace was between her legs chewing on her toes.

“So has she been good at least?” Jon who was fiddling with the camera sitting on top of his monitor trying to get it to aim at his face. “This would be easier if you were here to adjust it.” He muttered.

“If I was there to adjust it you wouldn’t need it. Just be glad Aunt Mary had an extra one laying around that R& D wasn’t using and don’t break it. Those things are expensive as heck.” Sammy told him as the camera jiggled on her screen.

“Why isn’t yours bouncing around?”

“Because I’m sitting very very still. It won’t last if Gracie gets wiggly.”

“Oh. Ok. How has she been?” he asked her again and sat back, more or less satisfied with where the camera said it was aiming this time. Tomorrow he’d have to fiddle with it again. It never seemed to stay where he left it last time.

“Pretty good. She misses them.” Sammy told him sadly.

“It’s only been a couple weeks. He’ll find her.” Jon reassured her firmly.

“I know. I just hate not knowing what’s going on over there.” She sighed.

“Yah. Me too. I miss your dad. Jake would have at least gone with Jack to make sure he didn’t do anything crazy or stupid.”

“See that’s what I worry about. Jack going off and doing something stupid or crazy to try to rescue her.”

“Hey, it’s, what I do.” He told her

“Did you seriously just quote Wormhole X-Treme!?” she asked him, laughing.

“Brian keeps making me watch it.”

“Ha! I knew it! I knew he’d gotten you to watch it!”

“Quit rubbing it in. The show is pretty funny. Looks like Jack is in the credits too as a consultant which is why the plot has gotten a little better.”

“You always were a good storyteller. Do you think Sam will let me babysit her over the summer?”

Jon was glad to see her optimistic attitude that Sam would be back. “I don’t see why not. She clearly likes you and it’s not like you are old enough to get a summer job.”

“Yah yah rub it in. Are you going to take the job at Bering & Son’s then?”

“I think so. Mrs. Bering is super nice and there’s worse jobs than stocking books.”

“Side bonus you’ll see me a lot.”

“There is that.” He chuckled as Gracie shoved her other foot in her mouth and tried to eat all her toes at once.

Something about his laugh made her look up. “DADA!” she shrieked.

Jon laughed. “Sort of.” He told her. “Are you having fun pumpkin?”

“Ah! Dadadadad… aza oocha ah dadd!” she told him very seriously.

“He’ll be home soon. I promise.” Jon told her.

“Aka anata dada.” She told him and shoved her foot back in her mouth.”

Sammy chuckled. “She has a lot on her mind.”

“Well, her mom is the smartest person I’ve ever met so that seems reasonable.” 

“Her dad is no slouch in the brains department either even if he does play dumb to get out of doing things.” Sammy told Jon archly.

“Hey! I’m paying attention in class this time around.”

“No you just have twenty extra years on the rest of the class.”

“That’s a disadvantage in history. Every time I talk about NASA I want to giggle.”

She chuckled. “Yah. Me too.” She looked thoughtful for a moment. “Do you think by the time we have a chance at it some of the stuff they did will be declassified?”

“Hello and let me introduce you to the American government where the truth is classified and the official story can be found on a late night cable science fiction show.” Jon said drolly.

Sammy giggled. “Ok, ok, you have a good point. Still. It might be nice if they got some credit.”

“Probably after we are all long dead.” He decided. “Is she always good like that?”

“Most of the time. It’s late so she’s pretty calm. Mary says all she does in the morning is yell at her toys.”

“Definitely an O’Neill.” Jon said laughing.

“I don’t know. Dad was pretty loud and annoying all the time too.”

“Are you saying you’re attracted to me because I remind you of your dad?” His face was slightly horrified.

“A little?” She ducked her head into her shoulders and held her index finger and thumb in a gesture that indicated small.

“Ewwww…” but he was laughing.

“You have much better hair.” She mollified him.

“Oh no, it’s too late now. You’ve admitted it. Now you have to live with the knowledge that your dad’s annoying behavior is what you look for in a man.” Jon looked smugly at her and she flipped him off which made him laugh harder. “Lynn is a bad influence.”

“Lynn has reason to be pissed off at the world. Yesterday her mom told her she can forget about going to art school. They only had money for one expensive school and Beth is going to some university out east.” Sammy huffed.

“Well that’s shitty. Lynn works hard to get great grades and has talent. Beth hasn’t studied in her life and is going to find out college isn’t super easy like she thinks it is.”

“I agree but she’s the goodie two shoes so she gets to go and Lynn is stuck going to Pikes Peak instead. She’s not even going to be able to move out.”

“Ugh. I hate her mom so much. I wonder if we could figure out a way for her to at least get out from under her mom’s thumb.”

“I think if we did they wouldn’t pay for her school at all by the way Lynn was talking.”

“I think I have an idea.” He grinned. “But we’ll have to have Mary and Wil on board and we’ll have to start planting the seeds with Lynn’s mom now in such a way that she thinks it’s her own idea.”

“What have you got in mind?”

“The first two years at the Academy I have to stay on base most of the time. You guys could sublet my apartment during school.”

“That might work. The only problem is most universities require you to live on campus for a year.”

“I bet we can get you an exemption because of your age. They don’t need to know your ‘home’ is my apartment.”

“Do you know what I love about you Jon?”

“My sparkling personality?”

She laughed. “That too. You can take the most frustrating problem and turn it into the simplest solution. If we casually mention that you don’t like the idea of your apartment being empty all winter and the Amos’s don’t want me living there by myself then her mom will think of it as she’s being helpful to the Amos’s instead of Lynn trying to get out from under her thumb. Especially if Lynn acts a little reluctant about the idea. Once she has her associates degree she can get a job and she and I can get an apartment together somewhere.” She grinned. “Plus since Lynn will be there the first year by herself, Marjory will think Lynn is stealing my boyfriend from me which will isolate her again.”

“That’s her name? Also ick, she’s really that conniving?”

“I’m pretty sure ninety percent of her motivation is how do I isolate Lynn so she only relies on me.”

“That’s disturbing.” Jon told her.

“I wish I was kidding. When I go over there her mom won’t let us just go hang out. She makes me sit in the family room for a long time talking only with herself, Lynn isn’t allowed to join the conversation. Lynn is a little OCD about being on time for things and I’ve watched her mom deliberately make her late so she starts panicking which makes her snap at people and then her mom acts like Lynn is the one being a bitch.”

“That’s pretty messed up.”

“Yah dad had some super bad habits that make me mad to this day but he was never intentionally cruel. Just pig headed.”

“You know eventually if they start dating, Brian is going to just crush that woman under his heel.” Jon told her.

“Yah… so… don’t be mad… but I told Lynn how he feels about her.” She ducked her head.

Jon sighed. “I should be because Brian asked me not to tell her, but I think she deserves to know how he feels even if he can’t do anything about it right now. The good thing is he’s my and your friend so once you guys are living together if he comes over it’s because he’s visiting you.” Jon laughed.

“Right and her mom can’t do diddly about my friends only hers. She has this weird set of rules about other people’s lives that are really easy to manipulate once you know how her mind operates.”

“Which took you all of what, five minutes to figure out?”

“Close. She is a lot less complicated than she thinks she is.”

“Aren’t we all.” He said in an it is what it is sort of way.

“Speak for yourself.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “Oh crap have you looked at what time it is?”

“Damn. Guess we better log off. I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“Same bat time.”

“Same bat channel.” It had become their sign off. “I miss you coming to practice.” He admitted.

“I miss going. G’nite Jon. I love you.”

“Love you too Sammy.” He smiled and turned off his cam. He hoped Jack brought Sam home soon. He missed his girlfriend. ICQ was all well and good but he couldn’t smell ICQ’s hair.


	13. Hauntingly Familiar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel I must add a disclaimer to this chapter having lost a reader over it. If you cannot abide a fictional opinion on religion that differs from what you hold dear to your heart you should probably skip this one. Please remember Daniel is a fictional character in a fictional universe with fictional opinions that might not align with your own. Stargate is a story about using religion to manipulate people. Remember that as you read that this chapter is written in the spirit of THAT and not with the intent to offend.

**Chapter 13 – Hauntingly Familiar**

Cam walked down the steps of the Stargate and automatically went over to the DHD and fished around inside it until he felt the piece of paper Jack had left behind. “Who the hell is Inah?” he asked Daniel.

“How should I know? What does it say?”

“It just says go see Inah with a doodle of an angel.”

Daniel took the proffered and offending note and read it. “Well, I guess we go find this Inah person.” He shrugged. The name seemed familiar somehow but he couldn’t place where. It would come to him.

It had taken them a while to catch up to this point with Jack. Their last known planet had been the one he stopped at after ditching Cam. The note there had been apologetic that Jack knew the trap was for him and that had he brought anyone else along they would likely end up dead. Confirming Vala’s opinion that Jack had ditched Cam for his own safety and not simply to make Cam’s life more difficult than it already was.

Cam shook his head in disgust anyways. They were on a wild goose chase after a man with years of black ops training and even more years of hunting space snakes. Now they had to go find an unknown person who apparently knew where Jack was headed next. Why he couldn’t just have left the next address in the DHD like he did the last three times was beyond Cam. It probably didn’t ultimately matter because the Tel’tak they had was a solid five hours behind SG-1. Most of the hops had been short which Cam was beginning to suspect was the plan. Hops close enough for a support ship to catch up. Jack had implied the last stop either didn’t have a gate or the gate was very far from Sam’s location.

For a guy that professed that he didn’t like science fiction, Jack was a big fan of introducing other people to it. The Jaffa had christened the stolen tel’tak ‘veS cha'par’ because they had been watching old episodes of Star Trek and decided they related to the Klingons for some reason and ‘war bird’ sounded like a good name for a stolen Goa'uld ship. He’d given Vala a copy of Firefly for Christmas and apologized that there was only one season but he thought she’d like the characters.

Cam was starting to wonder how he liked and admired a man that was a chronic pain in his ass. Vala had gone around quoting Morena Baccarin for three weeks until Daniel had begged her to stop. Meanwhile the Jaffa were making excellent use of their English to Klingon dictionary that Jack had given Master Bra’tak. It was bad enough he had to master Goa'uld. Now he needed to learn Klingon as well because the Jaffa council had decided it was a great code language they could use on missions. When Landry had found that out, he expressed that his head hurt and he’d be in his office.

“Greetings travelers.” A young woman seemed to have just appeared out of thin air on the edge of the clearing while they read Jack’s note.

“Er, hello. Are you Inah?” Daniel asked her.

“I am not. I will take you to her.” The woman smiled and gestured them forward. “Come. A meal has been prepared.” She told them.

Cam and Daniel looked at each other and shrugged. “Well boys, you heard the lady, let’s go have some lunch.” Vala announced and took Teal’c elbow to follow the local woman to where Jack was sending them.

“So…” Vala said casually. “We didn’t catch your name back there.” As they were following her through the same woods that had led Jack to a small boat shaped church.

“I am Yakara.” She told Vala and Teal’c

“What is your purpose here, Yakara?” Teal’c asked.

“I serve Inah.” She told him and her voice held smug amusement.

Teal’c raised an eyebrow and looked at Vala.

“Search me, Muscles. I don’t know what she’s talking about either.”

“All will come to light soon.” Yakara’s mouth quirked into a lopsided smile and she snorted in amusement at a joke neither Teal’c not Vala could grasp. She chuckled at their confusion. “I apologize. It was… what is your expression? An inside joke.”

“Ah. That makes perfect sense, doesn’t it Muscles.”

“Indeed.”

Daniel however had been listening to their conversation and narrowed his eyes. Why was light an inside joke. Inah… hm… it probably wasn’t a pun though that would be pretty funny. It had to be something else. Light. In Greek Inah meant holy but the word was far older than that. He pulled on his lip and tried to remember its origin. They came to the village of disinterested residents and Yakara lead them through to the church. Yakara meant beloved in Hebrew so could the name be Hebrew? Binah was part of the tree of life and meant understanding. His Hebrew was very rusty. It wasn’t a language they came across often in his travels. Shekinah meant causing to dwell and more or less meant the holy spirit dwells within. Holy shit.

“Um.. guys…” Daniel stopped walking as they came around a street corner and faced the same navicula style house of worship Jack had been to himself days before.

“What is it Daniel?” Vala asked him. A note of concern in his voice as she looked at him. Daniel had gone nearly white and was standing wide eyed looking at the church.

“Er, well, be really respectful to whoever Yakara introduces us to, ok?” He finally said.

Cam shrugged. “As long as they can tell us where Jack went, I’ll kiss their ass all they want.”

Daniel sighed heavily. “Oh, boy.”

“Daniel Jackson, you seem very distressed.”

“Well, We’re about to go meet god and Cam is making jokes so there’s that.” He told Teal’c.

“A false god.” Teal’c reminded him.

“No, I think in this case…” but he trailed off as a slender dark haired woman approached him. She smiled in amusement.

“Be at ease, Daniel Jackson. I do not offend easily.” She reached out a hand and took his. “Come. Let us eat and then we will talk.”

Daniel looked very startled as he looked into her eyes and Vala felt a moment of jealousy at this enigmatically attractive woman. She was not conventionally beautiful like Sam but she would never blend in either.

Inah ushered them all to an outdoor table and told them to sit wherever they liked then asked Yahara to bring water for everyone. The young woman nodded and walked away.

“Now then” She told them as she took her seat at the table, carefully brushing her dress flat under her. “Where should I begin?” She looked at Cam who was to her right then at Teal’c who was on her left. She smiled and addressed Daniel. “I am not god. I am just very very old by your standards.”

Vala snickered.

“Vala, I think you might know me best though you may not remember as you were a child. Your people once worshiped me though I’d prefer to not be worshiped.”

“My people?” Vala asked her in confusion.

“Did your mother not follow Azaleah Doua?”

“Well, yes, I suppose so. I was very young.”

“You were.”

Daniel took off his glasses. “Azalea Doua in Coptic means eternal light.” He told Vala. “The Abydonians spoke a version of Coptic. The Hebrew worshiped her as the creator goddess prior to their conversion to El at which point they made her El’s consort before scrubbing her from their history sometime around the time of Jeshua but Christianity kept her symbols as did the ancient medical community who still uses them. The Hebrew and Christians weren’t quite able to scrub her physically so they took away her name instead.” 

“Well that’s an awful way to treat your god.” Vala told him.

“Probably a habit they got from the Goa'uld who would erase dead gods from the records along with any gods they didn’t like at the moment.”

Inah just waited for them to finish.

“Why such a different name though?” Vala asked him.

“Well, at a guess, it has to do with language exchange. Azaleah Doua is Coptic but Hebrew was influenced by other languages as well and some of those languages predate Coptic.” Daniel told her. “Sheik is an honorific for a tribe leader in Arabic but in Hebrew shek is loosely translated to dwell with inah loosely translating to within. I suppose as they share a root language it could be like the word kree and mean several things that are similar in nature.” Daniel reasoned out.

“So she’s literally the light dwelling within you.” Cam asked him.

“Yes, I suppose you could put it that way. Hence why it’s the holy spirit that inspires the divine within as she dwells within you.”

Inah smiled. “Technically, you dwell within me but yes.”

“Wait, what?” Cam asked her.

“This physical form is simply a manifestation of my will.” She shrugged and started eating her meal. “Please eat. MREs can’t be that tasty that you prefer them over fresh food.” Her eyes twinkled.

“What does any of this have to do with finding Sam and General O’Neill?” Cam demanded.

“Daniel enjoys figuring things out, Cam. Eat your sandwich, dear. They are safe for now. You have time yet.” Inah said with a warm smile.

“So you’re literally god?” Vala asked her.

“Hm, no. I’m just very very old by your standards.” She repeated.

“How old?” Vala asked curious.

“Ask Sam. She will be able to give you a number you understand.” Inah shrugged then giggled. So will Jack if you ask him the right question.”

“Which question is that?” Cam asked her.

“How old is the universe.” Daniel told him. Cam’s eyes bugged out a little bit.

“My people refer to her as Unas’no’pah.” Teal’c told Cam.

“Which means?”

“First light.”

“Wait, literally THE first light, as in the big bang?” Cam asked incredulous and Teal’c nodded in affirmation.

Daniel nodded. “Her worshipers associated her with the dawn as it’s the first light of day, the tree of life which in Christianity is also the cross Jesus died on and the serpent of wisdom.”

“But in the bible the serpent is evil.”

“Now he is but once he was the voice of wisdom which is why the medical symbol is serpents entwining a tree. Wisdom and life.” Daniel looked up and over at Yakara. “My people have met you before, haven’t we?”

“Long ago. Yes.” She said.

“Oh come on, you can’t tell me she’s Jesus.”

“She’s not.” Daniel agreed.

“So who?” Cam demanded.

“His mother.” Daniel said simply. “In ancient societies religion was passed down mother to child.”

“She’s the mother of God?”

Yakara giggled. “In a manner of speaking. In reality who I gave birth to was only supposed to save the Hebrew from themselves. As with most heroes, however, his story was wildly out of hand a couple hundred years later.”

“So Jesus wasn’t God?” Cam asked her.

“Oh my, no. He was a good boy and his purpose was to break a cycle of abuse of power. He was not my only child whose purpose was that though it astonishes me to this day that your people still remember him in a way as it is never Inah’s intent to create a religious cult in her honor.”

“But Christianity worships Yahweh.” Cam said perplexed.

“Technically, Christianity worships Jeshua who was raised to worship El, the ancient name for the god of the Hebrews who before that worshiped Nanna, the moon god.” Daniel told him.

“Yah whatever.” Cam said dismissively and Inah giggled.

“Yakara did as I bid simply because I asked it of her. I am not above meddling but I cannot do so directly.” Inah told them.

“Well that makes sense. Most religions say you cannot look upon the face of god and live.” Daniel said.

“I am not god Daniel. I’m not even A god. I am simply very old.” She reminded him.

“But you are the source of life in the universe as the stars you create die and create life as we understand it which effectively makes you what most humans would define as ‘god’ if you asked them to define it.” Daniel insisted.

Inah sighed. “I am not the god they seek who solves their problems and soothes their hurts. I have no control over the events which befall them nor the pain they suffer. I am not god.”

“Well if you want to get technical their god doesn’t either because they wrote in a get out of jail free clause with ‘free will’ so god doesn’t have to do anything at all just in case you don’t exist.”

Inah drummed her fingers on the table. Yakara covered her mouth and her eyes danced in merriment. And then Inah threw her head back and began to laugh. It was a warm rich sound that had everyone feeling lighter for it. Somehow they had made her feel included in their group which was what made them who they were. She wanted to tell them how much she loved them in this moment but decided she’d never be able to explain the complexity of that emotion to them.

“When your ship catches up, I will provide you with the supplies you will need and directions on how to reach Jack and Sam. You will not be able to catch up to him I’m afraid. The only way for this to succeed is if they are together. They are both safe for now and will not be harmed before you reach them so long as you do not get sidetracked.

“Please, eat everyone. I have every faith in your success.”


	14. Love’s Labor Lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I got the formatting problem fixed so no more frankenwords. I hope. Special shout out to my BETA JustaFan8 for all her hard work making me look as smart as I pretend to be ;)

**Chapter 14 – Love’s Labor Lost**

Sam woke with the early morning light. For the first time in weeks she felt safe and realized why. Pressed against her back, Jack lay wrapped around her, his face buried in her hair just like he did at home. His familiar scent of leather, machining oil and his skin, his warm arms wrapped around her waist, holding her close. She closed her eyes a moment and savored the familiar comfort.

For many years they had a personal rule not to wake up this way and after the za’tarc incident they had stopped doing it for the most part because Sam would end up driving home crying or doing the same in her own bed after he left. Nothing was worse than having to live with knowing they loved each other and there hadn’t been a damned thing they could do about it. She’d been so afraid that what he really loved was the illicitness of their actions that when he’d brought up their feelings shed shut him down until he stopped bringing it up. Afraid then that she was bringing it up to let him down he’d stopped letting her bring it up too. They had just been a hot mess as Cassie said. She’d been so stupid and childish about the whole thing.

They could have used a pitcher of that tea once a month for a few years there. Weirdly once they were honest with each other it was like a dam had broken loose and they were perfectly comfortable with each other emotionally and physically after that. Like there had never been an issue in the first place. She really needed to have that tea analyzed.

She eased out carefully from his arms and shrugged her dress back on. She’d slept in her sports bra and BDUs. Wisely she’d only untied one side of the dress so when she pulled it back on all she had to do was retie one side to fit. She used the bathroom and brushed her teeth before sitting back down on the bed and waited for Jack to finally wake up. Heneta had been right. He’d slept though the evening meal she’d brought them. Sam hadn’t been entirely surprised. It had taken the better part of the day for her to shake off the effects of whatever drug the Ori had used on them.

Jack finally woke about half an hour later while she was absently stroking his hair, lost in thought. “This would be really nice if we weren’t here to be sex slaves.” He told her in amusement as he rolled over on his back. The blanket pooled over his stomach. His back was a road map of scars but his chest was fairly undamaged other than a few bullet wounds here and there.

“Oh yah. No electricity, can’t leave the room. This is great.” She told him sarcastically and gently punched his shoulder. “So. I was drugged and woke up here. How was your week dear?”

“Well, first the guys tried to see if you were on Celestis before anyone called me. Turns out you weren’t and they lost a couple guys finding that out which I wasn’t such a big fan of when I was told that little detail plus I wasn’t told you were MIA until you were missing for three days and Hank didn’t have any choice.”

“It’s because you freak out.”

“I do not freak out.”

“Did you show up at SGC straight from your office still in your blues?”

“I might have.” He hedged.

“They don’t call you until they know for certain because you freak out.” She told him but she patted his cheek fondly. He freaks out because he loves her. He kept his head about it usually but he was a very intense man and well, it was obvious he was freaking out.

“Ok, I freaked out a little bit but you had been missing three days already and they didn’t have any idea where you were until one of the council members finally broke down and admitted where they thought they might have taken you.”

“Which wouldn’t have been any different had you been there freaking out.”

Jack gave her a hard look. “Inah is wrong. You read my mind just fine.”

“I just know you really well. Who’s Inah?” He’d mentioned the name last night but been so tired he’d been unable to explain who this person was.

“Inah is kind of hard to explain. I was following up on where the Ori had been spotted working planet to planet because the prisoners admitted you had been taken by ship seeing as the stronghold was pretty far from a gate, I figured when I got closer I’d buy or steal one. Anyway, at one of my stops after I ditched Cam, I headed towards the nearest village to trade a donation at a church for some local looking used clothing.”

“Wait, you ditched Cam?”

“I had to. Once I figured out it was me they wanted in particular it wasn’t safe for him to come with me. He’d just end up dead. I also need to find out who the Ori sympathizer is at the IOA.”

“Why do you think we have one?”

“Because they kidnapped you not Gracie.” He told her with a snarl. If they had taken his daughter someone at IOA would already be dead.

Sam thought for a moment and nodded. Only someone with the official story would have gone to the trouble to lure Jack as opposed to just finding a way to take their daughter because their cover story was that she had a one night stand and Jack had married her so her child wouldn’t grow up without a parent should something happen to her now that her only family was a brother she barely spoke to. “All right so it’s someone in IOA. Why me though and not Vala?”

“Because I wouldn’t personally come to rescue Vala.” He took her hand and squeezed it. “Plus I think it matters that your snake died in you as opposed to being forced out.” He lifted her hand and brushed her knuckles with his lips. “So I got to this village and there was this strange woman who offered me food and a place to sleep a couple hours. She gave off this really soothing vibe like hanging out with your grandma. Anyway apparently she can read minds and knows what’s going on at any given moment but can’t see the future or says she can’t. I kind of got the impression that she could if it was extremely important for her to do so.” He shrugged. “She told me you were safe for the moment and would stay that way until I got here at which point it would be important that we got out of here inside the next two months.”

“Because if we don’t we have another problem to worry about.”

“Yup. Big one. I’m all for having another kid but I was kind of planning on bringing it up about a year from now.” He admitted.

“Are you sure, Jack?”

“Are you kidding? When Daniel told me you were going to try to have kids with that cop I died inside.” He admitted.

“Oh Jack. I’m so sorry.” She scooted forward and hugged him tightly. “I had this stupid idea in my head that you were only still with me because I was there. I don’t know why I thought that.” She admitted to him.

He wrapped his arms around her. “I let the stress of the situation get in the way of showing you how I felt. I’m sorry.” He told her. “We should have talked about this.”

“Yah, well, probably.” She gave a watery chuckle and sniffled a bit. “Ugh, stupid hormones. I still cry at the drop of a hat.”

“Well, on the upside at least it’s not my uniform this time.” He teased.

“I hate crying on your blues. It’s too pokey.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “You still haven’t really explained Inah.” She reminded him.

“I’m not sure I even can. She’s not Alteran but she acts like one, talks in riddles, thinks everything is amusing like Heimdall does. Reminded me a lot of Lya actually.” He grinned.

“So your kind of drinking buddy is what you’re saying.” She teased him.

“She’d fit in, yah. She had an assistant who kept flirting with me.”

“You aren’t hard on the eyes Jack.” She teased him.

The door started to open and Sam sat up. If there was an off chance the Ori didn’t know about their relationship she wanted to keep it that way.

Administrator Ghana came in with his toadies. “Ah. You are both awake. Excellent.” He motioned in another person who was dressed in a plain white and grey tunic and pants who stepped forward with suspiciously Alteran looking tech. “Vilis will examine you both for viability. You will mate when her ovum is ripe. Once you produce a male you will be released.” He smiled insincerely.

“And if we don’t produce a male?” Jack asked glaring from the bed where he was still sitting.

“The Ori are not cruel. You may keep any females you produce. We are not interested in a female only a male. In the meantime, you will be well cared for and no harm will come to either of you or your female offspring. Hallowed are the Ori.”

Vilis stepped forward. “You will both stand.” He ordered Sam and Jack who looked at each other and had a silent conversation about their options. Sam nodded and stood. She tried to move past Ghana and Vilis to go get Jack his shorts but Ghana stopped her.

“Hey, could you let her get my shorts at least, it’s a little drafty in here and I don’t want the lady to think she’s going to be disappointed.” Jack groused. He’d crawled into bed directly from his bath. Sam had salvaged his boxers and scrubbed them in the sink after Jack had fallen asleep then hung them over the side of the tub to dry.

Sam bit her lip trying not to laugh.

“You will stand and be examined for viability.” Ghana ordered him.

“How come you aren’t worried if she’s viable?” Jack grumped.

“She has produced a live offspring recently. You have not proven your fertility. Stand.” Ghana ordered him.

Jack sighed and got out of bed to stand next to Sam. He stared up at the ceiling and cupped his hands over his crotch. “I feel like I’m in basic.” He muttered and Sam fought a grin.

Vilis ran the scanner over Jack’s crotch. “He is fertile.” The man announced.

“Sufficiently?”

“Extremely.” Vilis replied.

“Stop giggling Carter.” Jack said out of the side of his mouth at Sam.

“Sorry Sir.” She whispered loudly back and snorted again. Then it was her turn.

“She will release a healthy ovum in approximately a little under a week’s time.” Vilis announced.

“Excellent. Your maid will bring in clothing and your meal. In a few days time, we will examine you again. If an ovum has been released you will mate. Hallowed are the Ori.”

“Hallowed are the Ori,” Vilis and Ghana’s toadies replied and they all thankfully left.

Jacks shoulders sagged and he dropped his hands from his crotch. “Good thing you were on birth control.” He told her.

“Extremely.” She replied and giggled.

“Can I have my shorts now?” he whined.

“Oh I don’t know. I’ve always kind of wanted my very own sex slave.” She told him cheekily.

“Carter…”

“Sir…” she replied in a teasing tone.

“Quit being kinky and get my shorts.” He begged.

“Yes dear.” She said, amused. She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss before going to the bathroom to retrieve his shorts decorated with multiple Homers doing the hula. “Can I just say though, possibly on missions wear government issue shorts?”

“It was laundry day.” He said as if that was a perfectly valid reason to show up on a rescue mission in Simpsons boxers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is my favorite chapter. Sam and Jack are adorkable together.


	15. OK, I Don’t Make Films

**Chapter 15 – OK, I Don’t Make Films**

They were sitting around Brian’s parents’ basement waiting for the game to start. Lori was sitting with Zulfi giggling about something he was saying. Guess that worked out ok after all Jon thought and went to sit with Sammy and Lynn. It had taken a lot of convincing to get Lynn to come up too and included Sammy planting the seed with Lynn’s mom that she wasn’t comfortable being the only girl at the party because she’d be bored. She technically didn’t know if Lori was going or not at the time so it wasn’t a lie technically. Sammy was perfectly comfortable hanging out with just the guys by herself. Marjory didn’t need to know that. A bit of passable acting had solved the issue of Lynn being allowed to come with. Jon was pretty impressed with Sammy’s acting actually. He knew she was good at frosting her real feelings with a layer of bull crap or she never would have survived the Academy.

“Relax Lynn.” He told the other girl and made a silly face at her.

“I’m fine.” She told him and Sammy started to laugh.

“Why am I surrounded by women who lie about being fine. I can take it you know.” He grumbled and scowled and Sammy laughed harder.

“What’s so funny.” He demanded querulously.

“You’re making the ‘colonel’ face.” And she giggled harder until tears ran down her cheeks.

Jon grabbed a pillow and wacked her with it. “It’s genetic.” He told her.

“Sure it is.” She snickered and told Lynn who looked mystified. “Jon’s uncle makes the same face all the time. It hasn’t worked on me or my aunt in years.” She explained.

“I’m sure you will be scary someday Jon.” Lynn soothed him but her eyes were laughing.

“I hate you both.” He told them laughing.

Sammy grabbed him in a headlock and gave him a noogie.

“Ow! Ow! What the hell, Carter!” he said laughing and tickled her until she let go laughing so hard she was gasping for breath.

“Truce! Truce!” Sammy tried to yell but it came out in gasps of breath between laughter.

Jon pinned her shoulders on the couch, gave her a quick firm kiss then let her up. “We should tell her.” He said to Sammy. He was now between the girls instead of Sammy being in the middle on the couch.

“You think so?”

“Yah. Her, Jay, Brian, anyone else who’s going to find out eventually.”

“Ok.”

“Tell me what?” Lynn asked curious.

“All right don’t be mad. We didn’t tell you the truth about Gracie.” Sammy said.

“What is she your kid or something?” Lynn quipped but both Sammy and Jon’s eyes went really wide for a second like she was on to something.

“No.” Sammy said firmly. “But you were right about her looking like me. Aunt Sam is her mom. She was kidnapped while on a mission and Uncle Jack is trying to find her. We didn’t tell the truth because we think they might have hurt her if they knew where she is.”

“That’s a pretty good reason to lie. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. No wonder you guys have been so off the last couple weeks. I thought you had a fight or something.”

“No. Just really worried. We haven’t gotten an updated in a while about either of them.”

“Do you think they will be ok?”

Jon and Sammy shared a look and both smiled slyly. “If anyone can, it’s them” she told Lynn. “Uncle Jack is former black ops and aunt Sam is an extraction specialist. They might be somewhere they can’t get transportation or a way to communicate easily but they will definitely survive if they are together.” She said with absolute conviction.

“Aunt Sam is the smartest person I’ve ever met. She can outthink rocket scientists.” Jon said with a big grin.

“She’s been a rocket scientist.” Sammy reminded him.

“Oh yah. She has. So no worries there. Gracie is safe with Sammy’s family because they work with them so they know what’s going on.

“Ok. Thank you for telling me guys. I won’t say anything. It’s not like I have other friends anyway.” She admitted to them.

“You have us.” Jon told her firmly. Looking her hard in the eyes. “If you ever need anything, ever, you always have us.”

Lynn gulped. The look in his brown eyes. He really meant it. She looked at Sammy and she had the same intense expression on her face. They knew what she was dealing with at home and hadn’t backed away like previous friends had.

“Hey. You ok?” Sammy asked her.

“Yah.” But it came out a strangled whimper.

“C’mere” Jon told her, arms open and Lynn hugged him. He motioned for Sammy to join in and she hugged Lynn and Jon as well

“Why wasn’t I told there would be hugging?!” Brian demanded when he walked by and grabbed them from behind the couch to hug all three of them which made Sammy laugh at him.

“It’s Jon. Of _course_ there is hugging.” She told Brian who was strategically leaning to hug Lynn the most.

Lynn lifted her head from Jon’s shoulder to look at Brian who was inches away from her face. She blushed a little.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?” Brian asked her softly and Jon let go of her so she could get up if she wanted.

“Um, sure.” Lynn told him shyly.

“We’ll be back in a minute. Go have some snacks, guys.” Brian told Jon and Sammy as he led Lynn away by the hand.

“Or I could just sit here in the corner making out with my extremely cute girlfriend.” Jon muttered into Sammy’s ear, making her turn bright red.

“And then Brian’s mom comes downstairs and calls Uncle Wil to take me home at which point I get lectured on acting my age however ironic that is and I get the added bonus of going home sexually frustrated.” Sammy told him.

“Can’t you just…” and he made a flicking motion that made her laugh. She leaned in very close to his ear.

“I prefer the real thing.” She whispered and grinned when he turned bright red.

“Well thanks. Now I need a cold shower.” He said as he picked up the pillow he’d swatted her with and laid it strategically on his lap.

“Good. That makes us even.” She said primly.

“You’re evil.” He told her.

“Did you talk to him?”

“Brian? Yah. Dude nearly had a panic attack when I told him you were bringing her. I told him he just needed to tell her the truth about how he felt and what his plans were.”

“I’m glad you’ve learned this stuff.”

“Yah yah, rub it in why don’t you.” He said laughing. “The good thing about making stupid mistakes is it makes giving advice on what not to do super easy.” Jon admitted.

A while later, Brian and Lynn came back in the room with serious expressions on their faces which might have suggested nothing had been resolved but Lynn’s hair was messier than it was when she left the room and her lips were swollen. Jon winked at Sammy and they covertly high fived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This should have posted 2 days ago. No idea whatsoever why it did not so you get 2 chapters today. Yipee!


	16. Giggle at a Funeral

**Chapter 16 – Giggle at a Funeral**

Sam was bored. Apparently reading wasn’t something Ori women were allowed to do and so, therefore, herself. Jack had become downright jittery over the last four days. At first they had passed the time talking about their eventual escape. Jack explained he had an escape route as he’d been conscious while he was dragged through the stronghold. After that though, boredom had set in. Both carefully avoided discussing their daughter in case they were being listened to. It wouldn’t matter if their plans to escape were heard as there wasn’t anything the Ori could do to stop them if they managed to get free, but on the off chance the Ori didn’t know he was Grace’s biological father which they seemed not to, they didn’t want them knowing either. Just because they didn’t want her now didn’t mean that might not change.

So Jack was more or less crawling the walls and Sam had run out of calculations to run in her head just to occupy her mind. By mutual unspoken agreement they decided to continue the false narrative that they were married in name only which meant not passing the time engaging in offworld hanky-panky. It felt weird anyway after years of avoiding any semblance of impropriety in public by only showing physical affection in private that they fell into normal mission protocol. No tonsil hockey offworld. Tonsil hockey lead to other activities that gave the Ori exactly what they wanted. They would have to drug them to get them to comply with what the Ori wanted them to do.

Sam did want more kids but Grace was only five and a half months old and just recently weaned by necessity right before she’d been captured. Sam had still been pumping some but only a couple times a day and she’d been drying up not doing it a couple days in a row every week while on missions. She felt bad about weaning her early but Gracie had taken to solids like a champ with the exception of one episode that Jack had to bottle feed her for two days until she was willing to eat solids again. She knew if she was still actively on SG-1 any future kids would also have to be weaned early which Sam would like to avoid. There was a high probability she’d be offered command soon. Jack’s late promotion had more to do with how many black marks he had on his record than lack of qualifications. Getting the job done sometimes made you unpopular.

Having another baby right now would likely derail that promotion, be hard on her body that had not yet entirely recovered from her last pregnancy, and if she was honest with herself, make her not want to go back to a field position which would lead to early retirement rather than a command position. Jack’s injuries were catching up with him. He rarely complained but his bad knee was shot. He’d need corrective surgery in a year or two. Most of his other aches and pains were just, well, the aches and pains of age. He wasn’t a young man anymore. Decades of abusing his body had caught up with him finally. She was glad he was riding a desk now. She did see the humor in the likelihood that he’d be paid hazard pay in spite of going AWOL to rescue her.

Oh she knew. He hadn’t told her but she knew that he’d gone AWOL by overriding Hank’s authority then ditching Cam the way he had. He probably wouldn’t face any repercussions simply because the government needed him more than they wanted to make an example of him. But Hank would fudge the records just like George used to because it was the two of them. It wasn’t reasonable to expect Jack to NOT try to find her. It wasn’t reasonable to expect otherwise from her either and she’d place heavy bets on Daniel and Teal’c were well on their way to catching up with Jack already.

They would go AWOL as well or whatever the civilian equivalent was. Sam had to laugh in spite of the situation. The Ori had made a terrible tactical decision by snagging the two of them. One or the other might have worked out for them though really, not, because the other three would be hot on the trail. Jack had simply gotten there first because in his estimation it was more likely for them to get out of here together watching each other’s six then individually. He wasn’t wrong.

Jack had a fairly good plan she had tweaked slightly once he told her. She wasn’t sure why he thought Daniel and Vala would just stay put and watch the baby while Cam and Teal’c rescued them. Poor Jack was bouncing off the walls at this point. He didn’t handle confinement well and he had no guards to annoy and nothing to focus on. It had been four days and he was sleeping to kill time as much as he could which was why she was sitting here brooding after breakfast and he was passed out on the bed.

Incidentally as it was four days after their little physical, she expected Vilis to show up some time today or tomorrow. She was curious how they planned to force them to have sex. They could go months if they had to and not because she was too pregnant for it to be comfortable anymore either. There were a lot of times long missions had them sleeping in the same bed and never doing more then cuddling accidently on purpose which they had done the last few nights as well.

The Ori seemed to think the official story was how things were which meant whoever their source was didn’t know Jack and Sam personally or only saw them in official settings where they interacted on a strictly professional basis. That narrowed things down a little at least. Now they just had to get home so she could dig out who it is and get them fired.

And speak of the devil, the door opened and in walked Admin Ghana and his special little friends including Vilis. “Hallowed are the Ori” Ghana said then ushered Vilis forward to examine Sam. “Wake him up.” He said to his guards of Jack who was ignoring them not sleeping. Sam had felt him wake up when the door opened. He’d been sleeping out of boredom not exhaustion and an attempt not to annoy the crap out of her because he was bored out of his mind. The guards didn’t know that though and one of them shoved him with their staff weapon. Jack grunted and opened his eyes to glare at the guard. “What?” He asked in a flat voice.

“Rise most fortunate consort of the great vessel.” Ghana told Jack. “Is she ripe?” he asked of Sam.

“The ovum is viable, Administrator. If it takes, she will bear fruit.”

Ghana made a gesture and the guards aimed their staffs at Jack and Sam each. “As you will require persuasion to couple as your marriage has clearly been in name only, you will be given a compound that will make you desire each other physically. If you resist the coupling you will be given a larger dose until you are unable to resist. Eventually you might damage each other in the process.” Ghana smiled viciously. “We are aware your physiology makes you difficult to drug so you will be given a high dose to begin with. Then you will remain here together until you have completed your coupling.”

“And what then?” Jack asked already knowing the answer.

“If in three days, she is with child you have completed your duty. Should she not be you will couple again in a month’s time until she is with child.”

“And of course she has no say in this.” He snarled. “You know she just had a baby. It’s not healthy for her to get pregnant this soon.”

“She will have excellent care with us, O’Neill.” Ghana said with a smarmy smile that made Jack narrow his eyes at the shorter balding man.

Vilis prepared an Alteran looking hypospray style injector. Jack vaguely wished the SGC had those things as Vilis shot him in the arm with his dose then went to Sam and did the same. There was no point in stopping the man as the chances of them surviving a shot from an Ori staff weapon were exactly zero.

Sam yanked her arm away and glared at the questionable doctor using stolen tech. The Ori only used Alteran science because they couldn’t be bothered to come up with their own. She was just glad there didn’t seem to be a proctor around. She’d had enough of glowing eyes for a few years.

“Keep your hands to yourself.” She told the grey dressed man.

“It is not his hands we wish on you, vessel.” Ghana told her and motioned for Vilis to leave with him. The guards stayed a moment to make sure Sam and Jack didn’t make a break for it and then they too left.

“Yah, so, I’m going to go sit over here on the other side of the room Carter.” Jack told her hoping keeping things formal would remind them to keep things under control.

“Ok, that should work. I’ll be over here behind the bed.” She agreed.

“Right. So. If only Daniel was here to bore us to death talking about rocks.” Jack said staring up at the ceiling trying to think about anything but his wife.

“Or Cam with one of his long stories about how depressing his childhood was.”

Jack snorted. “He’s a regular Tiny Tim, isn’t he?”

Sam giggled.

Jack groaned. “Please don’t giggle Carter.”

“Sorry sir.” She said nearly automatically.

He sighed. “I don’t know what’s in that stuff they injected us with but I… I can smell you.” He admitted.

She shifted a bit “Sorry. It seems to be affecting me too.” She admitted. Her cheeks were burning that he could smell how turned on the drug was making her from across the room.

“Not your fault.” He told her honestly. “This wouldn’t be so bad to ride out if we had literally anything to do besides sit here talking to each other.”

“I could talk about programming the gate if that would cool you off.”

She heard a thunk as his head wacked against the wall. “You talking about science has _never_ been a turn off.” He admitted.

“Why do you tune me out them?” she demanded.

“Because if I pay too much attention I start thinking about… stuff.” He said and shifted to a position that wasn’t as uncomfortable.

“What’s wrong with thinking about science?”

“Nothing when it’s anyone besides you.”

“Oh. OH! Yah, that would have been… awkward.” She agreed and sighed. And then she giggled.

“Please don’t giggle.” He said to her in a pained voice.

“Sorry Sir.” She said repentantly but he’d been the one to bring it up in the first place. Oh dear. Sam snorted in amusement.

“Oh god what is in that stuff anyway.” Jack complained. “Whatever it’s doing to me it’s getting worse.”

“Yah. Me too.” She admitted.

Jack thumped his head on the wall again.

“Does that help?”

“No.” he admitted.

“How long do you think the effects last?”

“No idea. What’s the worst case if we just give in?”

She shrugged. “We wake up tomorrow really sore.”

He got up. “I can live with that. How about you?”

She peeked around the corner of the bed. His physical condition was very obvious in the fitted britches common to the local star system. “That looks uncomfortable.” She observed.

“It is.” He agreed. “You smell really, really delicious right now. I can taste you.”

Sam put her head back and closed her eyes. “That’s not helping.”

“Yah it’s not helping me either.” He said and walked over to the bed. “Screw this. They will just drug us again until we follow through Sam.”

“You’re probably right. I just hate the idea that it’s not our decision.” She admitted.

“It is though. Right now. As long as we decided to just go along with it we have control and it’s our decision.”

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. He had his hand out to her. All she had to do was take it. Making love to him changed nothing. Their cover story was nothing but a lie to satisfy the IOA and protect Grace and their reputations. Once married there was nothing NID or IOA could do to them even if they had a dozen more kids. She reached up and took his hand.


	17. Courtside Killer Queen

**Chapter 17 – Courtside Killer Queen**

SG-1 and SG-12 were camped on a foothill outside the village next to the Ori stronghold. Fortunately the stronghold was on the outside edge of the town closer to the foothill. They had enough cover to not be visible from the building in their camo and grease paint as long as everyone stayed down. Their loaner ride was cloaked behind them, the hatch facing the mountains so it being open wouldn’t be noticed by any patrols on accident. The thick summer brush was to their advantage as cover.

Cam was watching the building Sam and Jack were being held in from the hillside. He lay belly down in the dirt, binoculars to his face counting guards. “How are we looking?” Barrette asked him.

“Looks like they might be a little short staffed. General O’Neill either thinned them out or they are more focused on keeping them from getting out. Possibly both.” He hedged.

“We should find that out before we commit to blowing the place to hell, don’t you think?” Daniel pointed out.

“Well, we could check it out with an infrared camera to find out which.” Barrette suggested.

“That won’t tell us which particular heat signatures are Jack and Sam though.” Cam said to the Major.

“Scan the building for naquadah and check it against the mostly stationary heat signatures.” Vala suggested from the other side of Cam.

All three men looked at her as though she was brilliant.

“What? I didn’t survive after being a host by being stupid.” She told them; eyes narrowed.

“No, it’s a great idea. I’m just surprised none of us thought of it ourselves is all.” Daniel assured her.

Vala rolled her eyes as though the idea that men should have thought of something first simply because of their gender or military training was idiotic which it was. “They should be in the same room if the Ori want them for what we think they want them for.”

‘Do you supposed they know Jack and Sam aren’t married in name only?” Daniel asked.

“Well, if they didn’t or Sam and Jack refused to comply the Prior or whoever they have coordinating this little shindig would have drugged them to force them to want sex very badly.” Vala told him grimly.

Daniel looked horrified. “That’s rape.”

“Near enough. Yes. And they will force them every month until she finally gets pregnant.”

Daniel sighed. “They were always really careful off world. In fact, they were so careful I had no idea they were having a physical relationship until years later and only because of some very questionable tea.”

“You are often oblivious to your surroundings, Daniel Jackson. “ Teal’c told him in amusement.

“Thanks Teal’c!” Daniel told him sarcastically and Vala snickered.

“He’s not wrong Daniel.” She told him laughing.

“Could we keep on topic here?” Cam begged in exasperation.

“So once we know where the general and Colonel Carter are, what then?” Barrette asked.

“Well, whatever we do it needs to be a big enough distraction to pull most of the guards away from their general area.” Cam decided.

“We’ll need a spotter up here with the infrared camera to keep track and make sure most of them are drawn away.”

“That won’t do any good if they don’t know one way or another. It’s going to need to be a big enough boom to alert them. They will have to make it out on their own.”

“We can track them to where they exit and give them ground support at that point.” Smithers said from behind them.

“All right so we need two teams. Teal’c, Vala, Daniel and I will focus on extraction.” Cam told SG-12. “You guys are going to make a big boom and provide suppression fire.” Barrette nodded.

“We’ve got staff cannons on the ship and a naquadah bomb.” Smithers said smugly.

“Indeed the free Jaffa were most generous with their supplies.” Teal’c agreed.

“Great. So we blow a hole in the building the furthest from where Sam and Jack are and shoot anything that moves?” Daniel asked.

“More or less. We need to make sure they leave in some other direction and if they don’t get in there and cover their exit.” Cam said to him.

“Sounds crazy. Should work.” Daniel said with a shrug.

“Of course it will work.” Vala told them. The most likely outcome is they will be expecting us and know the house shaking is their invitation to come see what the weather is like outside.”

“Right. Well. Let’s get set up everyone. We’ll do this tomorrow night once we’ve had a chance to confirm their location and hopefully map the building. It looks like local quarry stone so we should be able to get visuals if we can get a drone over the building tonight.

* * *

The rotation was a little off but it was about twenty three hundred hours when SG-12 flew a UAV over the compound high enough up not to be heard by the guards. A live feed sent them back from the pFRX attached to the drone was giving them a look at how the building was laid out inside. Jack and Sam were in a northwest room on the fourth floor. The building had another level and what looked like an open unused attic type area above that. The walls were smooth on the outside of the stronghold so they wouldn’t be escaping out the window and there didn’t seem to be general access to the attic so it was unlikely they would go up. What Cam did notice as the drone flew slowly back and forth was an extensive water system under the building. If Cam was a betting man he’d place one on that’s how O’Neill had gotten in. How far he got undetected was up for grabs but it was possible he’d only been trying to thin the herd rather than get in undetected. Why search the building for your target when you can get the bad guys to take you right to them.

He spent some time looking to see where the lines came out of the underside of the building as O’Neill was most likely to come out the way he went in. There was an outflow that lead to a creek about a mile away from the building. There was a new problem. The previously unguarded outflow now had a half dozen Ori guards. Cam swore.

“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked him.

“Found out how Jack got in.”

“That’s great.”

“Yah. It would be.”

“But?”

Cam handed him the laptop and showed him the creek.

“That’s a problem.”

“Yup. We’re going to have to take them out before we can extract our targets.”

“Sure looks like it.” Daniel agreed.

“I’ll do it.” Vala said.

Cam and Daniel looked at her.

“I’m serious. They aren’t going to look twice at a woman coming by to get water or wash clothing until it’s too late.”

“We could steal a basket of laundry.” Daniel suggested.

“We’ll have to do it first thing in the morning before anything else.” Cam agreed. “You won’t have long to take them out so don’t let them surround you and don’t let them check in either. Two clicks on the radio to let us know it’s done. We’ll detonate the South East side of the building as soon as they are neutralized.”

Vala nodded. “All right. Are we extracting them at that point or are we waiting for them to get out on their own?”

“I think we better play it by ear. We’ll keep the drone in the air. All three cameras can run at once since Sam gave us an upgrade so we’ll be able to know exactly where they are in relation to everyone else. If it gets ugly Daniel and I will go in and you can lead us to them. If they shoot at the NPRD get it out of range. We can have SG-12 pick them off the roof if they give us trouble.” Cam decided.

Barrette thought for a moment. “What if we just strafe the roof periodically so they think we are going to try to get in that way.”

Cam considered it. “Good idea. Especially if you act like you are trying to get a foothold. All right. We’ve got a plan, folks. Let’s everyone get some shut eye. Vala, Daniel and I will get up at oh four hundred and go steal some laundry. When we get back, you’re on.”

Vala looked at Daniel. “Works for me.” He told her.

“All right then. See you in the morning then boys.” She wiggled backwards off the ridge and went into the Tel’tak to rest up for her big acting debut tomorrow morning.


	18. Only This and Nothing More

**Chapter 18 – Only This and Nothing More**

Jack woke up first. His head was pounding with a dozy of a hangover. The throbbing in his head almost drowned out how much his body ached but at least that was from a pleasant experience not the drugs. They had gotten a little rough with each other as the drugs really kicked in and Jack was fairly certain he had some bite marks to go with the scratches he usually had from her. Jack grinned. The goofy Ori had threatened them with a good time. It was a good thing he was already in love with his wife. He felt chilly so he pulled the blanket up over them and stroked her back then kissed the top of her head before closing her eyes again and dozing off lightly.

Sam stretched and moaned. Her body hurt all over and her head was throbbing. In spite of this she had a satisfied and slightly goofy smile on her face. Her skin was bruised where Jack had forcibly held her down and drove into her so hard she’d screamed his name as she’d orgasmed over and over. It was a good thing she was current with her birth control.

Whatever they had been injected with hadn’t slowed him down even a little after he ejaculated the first time or the second. It would be a wonder if he could even move after last night. She snuggled deep into his shoulder, her leg across his. They hadn’t bothered with role play or any kind of kink. The drugs had made them so turned on all they had wanted was to take each other over and over until the drugs started wearing off late in the evening when they had both finally passed out from exhaustion. The admonishment that she would need her strength now made complete sense. Holy Hannah, had she ever.

If only her head didn’t hurt so much this morning. She needed water and possibly a tree full of bananas and an ibuprofen the size of a donkey which ironically she felt like she’d been ravished by. She chuckled against Jack’s neck which made him stir.

“Hey.” He said to her sleepily.

“Hey.” She replied and tilted her head to nuzzle his neck.

“Didn’t you get enough of that last night?” he asked her with a chuckle and snuggled deeper into the blanket covering them, pulling her deeper with him.

“I hurt all over.” She admitted.

“Yah, me too.” He agreed, a smile in his voice. “That stuff would be great if it wasn’t for the hangover.”

“Oh, I thought it was just me.” She groaned.

“Nope. I feel like I got my bell rung and I could spit cotton balls.”

“Hm. One of us should get us some water.” She told him.

“That requires moving.”

“If we wait long enough, Heneta will bring us breakfast and water if we ask her.”

“We need a maid for home.” He decided. “Think we could kidnap her?” He was only half joking. Heneta was a very nice woman. Neither felt she was genuinely a believer so much as a woman trying to survive her situation. If she was around when the fireworks started, he would ask her if she wanted her freedom. He bet Inah would help the woman readjust to not being a zealot. He wondered why he’d thought of Inah first and not Tuplo who had become their go-to for refugees who needed help emotionally. There was something very odd about that woman that he didn’t want to think too much about. He had figured out that she must be centuries old at least. She reminded him of Lya with her sweet nature and motherly disposition. He bet Lya and Inah would get along great.

Sam looked at him oddly, trying to gage if he was kidding or not. “Do you think she’d want to leave?”

“She doesn’t seem at all happy here. We’ll at least try.” He told her and kissed her forehead. “We should get dressed.”

“It hurts to move.”

“Yah, screwing like bunnies will do that.” He said with a laugh. “Come on, Carter. Fall in.” He ordered her hoping training would take over.

Sam groaned in protest.

He slapped her bare ass which made her jump. “If we lay here all day, it’s going to be really obvious we enjoyed ourselves a lot.” He grinned. “I did by the way.”

Sam chuckled and shook her head. “I did too.” She gave him a quick kiss and slid off him finally. Somewhere her panties lay on the floor. Dirty and discarded and smelling of sex. She sighed. She could either go commando or turn them inside out and pretend they weren’t crunchy.

“Problems?”

“I don’t have any clean underwear.” She admitted.

He made an ew face. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

“Not helpful Jack.” She told him.

He shrugged. “Helpful is your job. I’m just here to sign off on the paperwork.” He winked at her and she rolled her eyes.

“Cam actually likes doing paperwork.”

“Mitchell would.”

Sam chuckled. He wasn’t wrong. She found her panties under a chair and put them on cleanish side in. She sighed and made a grossed out face that made Jack laugh.

“So I had an idea.”

“About?”

“The blue stuff.”

“Oh?”

“It’s very viscous.”

“I knew getting you a thesaurus for Christmas was a good idea.”

Jack threw a pillow at her that missed only because she had time to slide away from its trajectory. “I bet it would be very distracting to have a face full of it.”

Sam thought and nodded her head frowning. “How do we keep it from sticking to us?”

“Soap.”

She gave him an impressed look. “Nice MacGyvering Sir.”

Jack looked smug. “I thought so.” Then he grinned.

Sam shook her head and laughed as she shrugged her dress over her BDUs and sports bra. “Shouldn’t you get dressed”

“I thought you wanted a sex slave.”

“Let’s save that for when we want another baby.”

“That’s worth looking forward to.” He said enthusiastically and tried to jump enthusiastically out of bed but only succeeded in hobbling out tired and sore.

“Why don’t I draw you a warm bath. You’ll feel better.”

“How come you are only nice to me when I’m in pain Carter.”

“Pity.” She laughed at the face he made. “Also it’s unwise to poke at a wounded bear.”

“You are such a pain in my ass.” He told her.

“And yet you married me anyway.”

“A moment of weakness.” He said grinning at her.

“Regrets huh?”

“Not a one.” He told her sincerely and let his eyes do his talking for him. He and Sam had never needed to use words to communicate. They had whole conversations with each other in front of other people that no one could follow but the two of them. They were unable to genuinely hide their feelings from each other, only disguise them as something else for a little while.

“Ghana is going to be really annoyed when I don’t turn up pregnant tomorrow.”

“Tough luck.” Jack agreed. “We had fun though so joke’s on him.”

“I’m starving.”

“You should be.”

She went to the window to check the approximate time. “Heneta should be here with breakfast soon.”

“Good. Hopefully the menu will stay the same.” Sam nodded. They finally had a use for the weird blue stuff served every morning that neither of them would try.


	19. The Darling Buds of May

**Chapter 19 – The Darling Buds of May**

Sam, Jay, Zulfi, Lynn, Lori, Jon and Brian were at the local park sans Gracie. Sam and Jon had told Jay, Brian and Zulfi what was going on with Gracie then made it clear that they needed to not talk about it over the phone or outside of Sammy’s house. Technically they could discuss it at Jon’s place too. Jack had given him a sweeper on one of his first visits but as there was no way to eliminate a listening device in another apartment near by they should only risk it in an emergency.

“So how’s the new job going Jon?” Zulfi asked him. Jon was laying on a picnic table bench staring up at the sky.

“Fun. Mrs. Bering is super nice. Get this. Their oldest daughter is a secret service member.”

“Secret service as in THE secret service?” Brian asked.

“Yup. She came into the store once. She definitely gives off FED vibes.”

“Do you suppose your uncle knows her?”

“Why would that matter?” Jon wondered.

“I was hoping he’d get Mr. Buda a date.” Jay said.

“That cranky SOB? No way would I stick someone nice like Myka with a grumpy a-hole like him.”

Sammy leaned over the edge of the table until her hair tickled Jon’s face. “You’re a hypocrite.”

“That’s different.” Jon insisted.

“What’s different?” Lynn asked.

“Uncle Jack is a cranky SOB and Jon sees nothing wrong with him being with my very sweet and nice pretty aunt.” Sammy said smugly.

“You liar. She’s as evil as you are, Pipsqueak. She just hides it better.” Jon admonished her.

Sammy giggled. “Hank retro paid me for the last couple weeks and said as far as he was concerned if they didn’t keep me on as their summer babysitter they were crazy.”

“Cool. What are you going to do with the loot?” Brian asked her who knew by previous discussions that Hank was aunt Sam’s boss.

“Buy books.” Lori announced and she and Lynn high fived. Lori and Lynn were getting along very well which made Sammy really happy. She had been afraid Lynn’s long lack of real friendships had turned her into a reclusive loner but it seemed her introverted behavior was mostly an act to deal with her mom. Everyone had explained to Lori that she had to be gentle with Lynn and to treat her normal but not push the issue if she couldn’t do things or at the last minute had to cancel. Brian had explained to Lori that Lynn’s mom was a regular Karen and Lori had instantly grasped the issue. No one liked Karen. They were pretty sure Karen didn’t like Karen.

Brian who was sitting on the bench below where his girlfriend was sitting on the tabletop put his arm affectionately over her lap where she absently stroked his hand. “Have you guys heard anything?”

“Not yet.” Sammy said sadly.

“It’s been weeks. School is out.” Lynn said.

“Yah.” Jon said in a worried voice. “Not much we can do on our end.” His voice was wistful. Sammy knew he’d give anything to be in the field helping rescue them. Their job was to make sure Gracie was safe though and they would do it to the best of their capacity.

“What are you doing for a job this summer Bri?” Lori asked him. There were no hard feelings. They made better friends and it was really clear where Brian’s heart was once he’d met Lynn. She thought it was sad they had to hide their relationship from her parents. Everyone else’s parents were in on it though. They had even worked out how Lynn could attend school dances as Jay’s ‘date’ then switch to Brian once they got to someone else’s house for photos of which the photos her folks got would be carefully edited of any that had them together or looking at each other. Lori’s mom had been furious that such a sweet girl had no idea how likeable she was because her mom had convinced her she wasn’t good enough for anyone.

“Would you believe I’m the runner for Jay’s dad’s office?” he told Lori.

“What the heck is a runner?”

“Slave labor.” Jay told her. “Dad hires high school kids to fetch his lunch and set up hotels for his mistresses and shit like that.”

“What does he do in the winter?”

“Temps.”

“Ah.”

“He has to pay the temps more so he fires them as soon as he gets an application. He makes the job sound great, even pays a bit above average so it looks like a really sweet gig on the surface. He doesn’t know Brian is a friend of mine or he wouldn’t have gotten the job.”

“Not like you would step foot in his office.” Brian agreed.

“Yah well it’s going to get struck by lightning one day so I’m not taking my chances.”

Lori laughed. “Good reason not to step foot in any place.”

“What about you?”

“Bagger at the grocery store. I tried to get Zulfi to apply but he said his father is a neurosurgeon and he didn’t need a summer job.”

Everyone laughed including Zulfi. “Dad is trying to get me to take summer classes at the local community college to get ahead before I go to med school.”

“Do you want to be a doctor?” Jay asked him in interest.

“I don’t know honestly but if I don’t want to be I had better pick something before senior year or he’s going to be really pissed about all the application fees and bribes going to waste.”

“Bribes?”

“He’s kidding. Doctors don’t bribe schools to take smart kids. That’s what you do for the dumb ones.”

Lynn sighed. “I should probably get going.” She admitted. They had picked the park closest to her house so she could say she was going for a bike ride. The park was technically outside her assigned range being more than a quarter mile away from her house but Lynn was used to lying about her whereabouts. Last week the girls had told her mom they were going to watch movies at Sammy’s house but what they had actually done is sit on Brian’s cousin’s porch downtown while his cousins passed a 40 and watched the neighbors get the cops called on them.

“Call me when you get home.” Sammy told her.

“Yup.” Lynn also was not allowed to have a cell phone. She had her dad’s old pager and that was it. She had to borrow a phone to call her mom back if she got a message.

Brian tugged her down and gave her a gentle kiss. “See you in group chat.” Their solution to her mom’s behavior regarding Lynn’s relationships was to set up a chat room for them to get together when they had time. They could talk in code and pass along messages to each other without her mom knowing she had a boyfriend at all.

Lynn got on her bike and left. “Who wants ice cream? My treat.” Jay told them.

“You even have to ask?” Sammy said.

“All right. Jon’s place is closest. Anyone that wants a ride get your skinny ass in the car.”


	20. Living it Up at the Hotel California

**Chapter 20 – Living it Up at the Hotel California**

Vala strolled down the narrow bank, her hips swaying suggestively as she got closer to the guards. “Morning, gentlemen. My fool of a father stuffed up the well again. Mind if I wash my unmentionables here?” she asked sweetly.

The guards looked confused. “This water is not clean.” One of them finally told her.

“Neither are my underthings.” She pulled her zat out from the basket and shot all five of them in quick succession. Once they were all down she shot them each a second time. She didn’t want them getting back up at an inopportune time or yelling for attention. She dragged them under some shrubs and double clicked her radio then headed back the way she came, leaving her purloined basket of laundry behind, ironically near Jack’s pile of belongings.

* * *

“That’s our cue.” Daniel said to Cam and shrugged on his P90 after checking his night vision goggles. They had no idea if there was lighting in the water system of the stronghold or not and didn’t want to give away their positions once in so they would be going in dark.

Cam waited until he saw Vala working her way around the ridge on her way to their position before he radioed SG-12 to commence with some spontaneous energetic disassembly. Barrette radioed back a go for launch in five minutes which gave Vala enough time to get in position. She had a sight line on the outflow and the building from the ridge. She took over control of the drone that was keeping track of Sam and Jack’s location inside the building. Cam and Daniel each had a naquadah bar in their vests to differentiate them from the other occupants. That had been Vala’s idea too.

The tel’tak was cloaked just south of the building which was conveniently away from the outflow as well. It was located on the west side of the building and didn’t seem to be guarded anywhere but at the opening which had since been neutralized. Vala had politely dragged the bodies to a nearby brush. She didn’t have the heart to disintegrate them and have their families never know what happened.

* * *

Jack felt better after a warm bath and a shoulder rub from his wife. The ibuprofen his wife had left on her hadn’t hurt things either. Heneta had come in with their breakfast while he’d been drying off so he hurriedly got dressed.

“I’ll clean your room while you eat m’lady.” She told Sam.

“Thank you Heneta. Breakfast smells delicious.” It did too but right now anything would be delicious as they had worked off quite a few calories the night before.

“If the Origin has blessed you, you will need your strength even more so now.” Heneta replied.

“Yah well, let’s hope not. I just had a baby five months ago Heneta. My body really isn’t ready to have another.” Sam told her. “I miss my little girl.” She admitted. “Do you have any children?”

“No m’lady.” Heneta told her as she stripped the bed. “Servants of the proctors are not allowed to marry and are killed if they are found with child.”

“But that only punishes female servants and what if you are raped?” Sam asked appalled.

“It matters not. If a man touches me, it is because I have tempted him. If Origin wills a child as the result then I am to be punished.”

“Wait, so your god can will you to be raped then will you to have a child against your own will then kill you for a situation you never wanted in the first place.”

“It is the way of the Ori.” She said simply.

“Heneta, you don’t have to live this way if you don’t want to.” Sam told her firmly.

“M’lady is kind but there is no hope for me. If I were to leave, they would only bring me back again and then I would be sacrificed for my crime.”

Sam sighed. “Heneta. We can take you with us.”

“You will not escape”

“We will Heneta. We’re leaving here. We will take you with us if you want to leave. We have powerful friends that can protect you from the Ori for the rest of your life.”

“If I live in hiding, I am no more free than I am now.” She said with a sad shake of her head.

“You wouldn’t be, Heneta. You would be free.” Jack said to her as he opened the bathroom door. “We _will _escape this place. I’d really like you to come with us if you are unhappy here.”

Heneta though, laughed. “You are both mad. I am not leaving and you are not leaving here either. The Ori will breed you until you produce a boy child and then they will kill you both and any girl children you have already produced as well. Likely myself as well for showing you kindness. I shall go clean your bathroom now while you sup.”

Sam and Jack looked at each other in concern. If she told her boss about their conversation this morning it was likely he’d kill her for even speaking to them about escape.

* * *

“Lieutenant, is the gift wrapped?” Barrette asked Smithers.

“Wrapped and ready for delivery sir. Operation Christmas is a go.” He told the Major.

“Excellent.” Barrette said in a fair impression of Mr. Burns as he rubbed his hands together.

Smithers laughed. “Stop that Greg.” He told his CO. General O’Neill had been a bad influence on his boss.

“Smithers, release the hounds.” Major Barrette said unperturbed.

Behind them Behunin, Green, Jones and Johnson laughed. They were used to their commanders bickering like old men. They were also prone to heckling like Statler and Waldorf on base. On missions they just bickered. Had for years now. It seemed to work for them though.

Barrette took the tel’tak out of cloaking which brought the weapons systems online.

Smithers strafed the roof to get everyone’s attention then fired their naquadah missile into the side of the building. He was a big fan of it being programmable as it went a specific distance inside the building then exploding. The problem with uncontrolled ordinance, Smithers mused, was when it took out your evacuee along with your targets. But this cute little ticker would perform its workforce imbalance correction without endangering the General, his wife the Colonel, or their evacuation team coming to meet them somewhere inside. Smithers watched gleefully as the side of the stronghold crumbled into a cloud of dirty yellow dust.

“Stick applied, awaiting the ant swarm, sir.” He told Barrette.

Major Barrette nodded and radioed Mitchell and Jackson. “Santa has delivered. Good luck SG-1.”

“We saw 12. Continue harassment fire until further ordered.” Cam told the team on the tel’tak.

“Acknowledged, SG-1.”

* * *

The building rattled. Hard. “Company.” Jack said with a smirk and put on his shoes.

“Yup. That’s our ride. Heneta, we are leaving. We will take you with us if you want to get away from this.” Sam told the woman whom she’d grown to like.

“If they capture us before we escape I will be killed.”

“Then we won’t get captured.” Jack told her simply.

“You were before.” She told him desperately.

“I got captured on purpose. The plan was to get in, get captured, wait for backup. It was always my plan to get captured the first time.”

Heneta looked at Jack, her face full of uncertainty. “You meant to be captured?” She had not considered that possibility.

“Carter and I work best as a team.” He said simply and smiled at his wife. “We always have each other’s six.”

“Your six?” she asked confused.

“He means each other’s backsides.” Sam told her. “Please Heneta, we have to go soon.”

Heneta looked at each of them and slowly nodded. “What is it you need me to do?”

“Wet the bar of soap. We’re going to disable the guards and take their stun weapons.”

“Yes m’lord.” She told Jack and did as he asked.

* * *

“So we know for sure they are four levels above us?” Daniel asked Vala softly.

“They haven’t moved around much yet.” Vala admitted.

“I will begin setting charges Daniel Jackson. Radio me should you run into difficulties.” Teal’c told him and dissolved into the darkness.

“What is that… smell…” Cam asked.

“It’s shit Cameron. Quit complaining.” Vala told him.

“Like, shit shit?” Cameron sighed and shook his head. “General O’Neill owes me. First he ditches me on some mud ball then I have to crawl through literal shit to save his ass.”

Daniel rolled his eyes. Cam complained more than Jack. “Vala, which way do we go?”

“It looks like there’s a stairwell about thirty paces ahead of you and to the right.” She told him.

“All right, we’ll head that way. Let us know if any fanatics head our way.” Daniel told her.

“Who’s in charge here anyways?” Cam asked him.

“When you stop freaking out about the shit on your shoes, you can be in charge again.” Daniel told him with an exasperated sigh.

“Rude.” Cam told him with an injured tone and headed forward to the area Vala had indicated.

* * *

“All right, you’re going to have to trust us. Just walk out like you normally would and try to get the guard’s attention. When they are distracted, Sam and I are going to incapacitate them. Are you ready?” Jack asked Heneta gently. He wanted her on board but he needed to make sure she would do exactly as they said.

“I am ready m’lord.” She told him with a nervous nod. She may die this day but at least if she did she died of her own accord and not because of some imagined slight.

Jack decided she was as ok with this as she was going to get. “All right, Sam, the goop.”

Sam scooped up the sticky blue substance and carefully plopped his portion into his cupped hands. “Man this stuff feels weird. What the hell is it? Reminds me of the story Mac told us about Merlin dousing himself in bat guano”

Sam shrugged and took her portion.

Heneta gathered up the plates and waited for them to get in position near the doors before opening them to leave the room.

She pretended to drop her basket next to one of the guards and started apologizing profusely as she picked up the items that had fallen out clumsily.

“Get done, you clumsy old hag.” One told her and kicked her soundly in the ribs.

She flinched away, cringing to draw their attention.

While both men stared down at her in contempt, Sam and Jack came at them quickly from behind in unison and filled their eyes with sticky blue goop. When they tried to turn and fight, Jack punched one hard enough to break his eye socket and Sam twisted the other’s neck until it made a sickening snap.

“Jeeze Carter.” Jack told her.

“I don’t like men who abuse women.” She told him with a glint. Her dead guard was the one who had kicked her maid. They dragged both back into their room along with the basket of dirty laundry and dishes.

“You’ve got anger issues.” He said but his lip twitched.

Sam was busily removing their stun wristlets and handing one to Jack. “Are you all right Heneta?” She asked the older woman.

“I’ll be all right. I’ve been beaten far worse by the guards than a dismissive kick.” She told them.

Jack put on his stunner and shot his guard to make sure he stayed out. “We’ll keep you safe. Stay close to Carter. She’ll watch your six.”

Heneta nodded. They had so far.

Sam finished putting on her wristlet and moved up against the wall. “Just do what I do and we’ll be ok.” She said.

“All right, Heneta, from here out Sam and I will be using hand signals. Follow her lead and keep the wall to your back.” Jack said to her and started moving along the wall, his stun weapon out and at the ready. Sam brought up the rear, Heneta between them.

* * *

“They’re on the move” Vala told Daniel and Cam.

“Good. Where’s the next stairwell” Cam asked.

“Double back a quarter click then turn right. There’s a stairwell in the middle of the building. You have about five guards, possibly six, some of them are staying close together. The stairs switch back to the front corner two levels up.”

“Acknowledged.” Cam told her.

* * *

Barrette watched Smithers pick off Ori solders like squishy tin cans on the roof and in the exposed levels the bomb had opened up. They had considered blasting the open levels with grenades or frag missiles but Colonel Mitchell had been worried about further destabilizing the building before they got their people out. It didn’t look like the Ori had any SAM’s so all Smithers was doing was thinning the herd. They seemed to think the tel’tak was trying to land which Barrette was deliberately giving them by moving in and out of range of their staff weapons.

Smithers gleefully strafed the next group of guards. “Sir, they can’t be this stupid.” He said in confusion.

“It’s religious zealots Smithers. If they were smart they wouldn’t be in a cult.”

“Ok but they are all but running into my fire zone.”

“Well, you said they needed downsizing.”

Green snorted in amusement behind him.

* * *

Jack crouched. “I only know one way into this place.” He said softly to Sam who had come up behind him.

“We’ll just have to fire fast and hope we pick most of them off before anyone can hit the panic button.”

“Someone will have noticed our guards are down by now or if they haven’t they will soon.”

They had gotten lucky so far. The level they were on had been clear with the exception of a pair of guards at the stairwell. Everyone else seemed to have gone to fire staff weapons at their support vehicle. If she had to guess someone was tracking their progress through the building so they didn’t accidently get blown to bits during one of the support staff reorganization sessions they felt shake the building periodically.

“There’s ten of them Jack.”

“I know that.”

“They have staff weapons.”

“So, shoot quickly. You go low.”

Sam looked at the back of her husband’s head like he was dumb but she didn’t otherwise reply. Why bicker with him about the fact that she knew he physically couldn’t take the low position any more or that they had done this thousands of times and she was as much an expert as he was.

Instead Sam got into position and watched for his signal to fire on the group of guards preventing them from getting down to the next level.

* * *

“What’s their position Vala?” Cam asked her. They were currently zating servants so they didn’t sound the alarm that the building had been infiltrated.

“One level above you but they have a problem. It looks like they have someone with them, possibly another prisoner? Anyway, there are ten guards in their direct path and a half dozen behind them too. Can you get up there and divide their fire?”

“Sure. No problem.” Cam said sarcastically. “Piece of cake.”

“Good because they really need you up there right now.”

* * *

“Smithers, check in with our ground unit and get me location on our extraction team and their targets.” Barrette told him.

“On it. North Pole, what’s our hostage situation looking like?” He asked Vala.

“They are a level apart right about now, about fourteen or so guards between them. Do you think you can give them something to think about?” She asked.

“We’ve got some mines I could drop on the roof away from our teams.”

“Sounds like a party Santa.”

“Ho ho ho.” Smithers told her.

* * *

“Heads up fellas.” She radioed Cam and Daniel. “Santa has stocking fillers for the naughty children.”

“That’s not how Santa... oh never mind. Acknowledged, North Pole.”

“Looks like the party is coming to us.” Cam said.

“Yah. Great.” Daniel said grimly and moved forward watching for movement.

They picked off three guards before they were noticed and pinned down in an alcove.

Suddenly though the fire fight was over as Jack and Sam surprised the guards from behind.

“Hey Danny. What did you do with T?” Jack asked him.

“Funny story. He said something about setting charges while we fetched the two of you. Who’s your friend?”

“This is Heneta, She was our maid while we were guests.” Jack told them. “She wants the hell out of here.”

“Well then, Cam said, let’s oblige her.”

They nodded at each other and headed back the way Cam and Daniel had come in. “You could have warned me about how you got in Sir.” Cam said to Jack.

“And spoil the surprise? I’d never.” He said in an injured tone that made Sam suppress a snort of mirth.

‘Cute.” Cam told him and took point. Jack was more than happy to let him. He could focus entirely on keeping Carter safe and not worry about the maid or the rest of the team.

They worked their way slowly back down to the underground level of the building where Daniel radioed Teal’c. “Got your surprise set up?”

“I do Daniel Jackson.” Teal’c agreed. “Do you have O’Neill and Colonel Carter?”

“Safe and sound buddy” Jack said as Daniel toggled the radio.

“It is good to hear your voice O’Neill.” Teal’c said warmly. “I will meet you at the exit.”

“You too T.” Jack told him after taking the radio from Daniel. They had brought two extra pair of night vision goggles. Sam carefully led Heneta through the smelly wet tunnels.

Teal’c was waiting for them at the entrance to the exhaust pipe and hugged Jack enthusiastically. “I have laid charges throughout the structure of the building’s lower level.” He informed Jack.

“How much time do we have?”

“Indefinite. It is set on a deadman’s switch.” Teal’c told Jack smugly.

Jack grinned and nodded. “Let’s get out of here then.”

The group walked single file down the pipe until they came to the opening. Teal’c and Cam scanned the area for any more guards but apparently Vala had dealt with them all.

Cam radioed the tel’tak. “Santa, we could use a pick up.”

“Acknowledged Grinch.” Smithers replied.

The drone flew into the open bay on the small aircraft and it recloaked. They had no reason to fire on the building anymore. Vala was making her way down the side of the hill with the laptop under her arm. She ran as fast as she could down the hill and skidded to a stop in front of Sam and hugged her tightly.

Sam laughed and hugged her back. “I missed you too Vala.” She told the small dark haired woman.

“All right campers, I hate to break up the happy reunion but we better get out of here.” Jack told them all as an open bay appeared in front of them. Everyone piled in and the ship lifted away.

“Say, how did you get here?” Cam asked Jack

“Puddle Jumper. Leave it, it’s a piece of junk.” Jack told him.

A deep rumble could be heard as the building shook. Teal’c had taken his dark thumb off the switch and the detonators went off in quick succession. The wide building shuddered then fell into itself taking its occupants with it.

Sam’s team enthusiastically group hugged her and Jack who would forever be SG-1’s leader in all their eyes, even Cam and Vala. After a little while everyone settled down and left them standing together, their arms around each other, her head on his shoulder. An unusually open display of affection for them considering SG-12 was also aboard.

“Let’s head home gang. Good job.” Cam told them.

“We need to make a pit stop first.” Jack said. There was someone he needed to thank in person.


	21. A Journey with Water and Stars

**Chapter 21 – A Journey with Water and Stars**

Instead of coming through the Stargate, the entire group of both teams had stayed on the ship for the trip back. Vala had insisted that every member of SG-1 bathe. Sam was hard pressed to disagree. They all smelled like things none of them wanted to think too deeply about. Vala had helped Heneta with the unfamiliar clothing of pants and a t-shirt then carefully combed out her hair and braided it for her.

Jack had discreetly watched the two women while Sam changed into clean clothing. “Is she always like that?” he asked Sam softly.

“With lost souls? Yes. She’s more kind than she’d like people to think she is.” Sam said softly. She walked up behind Jack and wrapped her arms around his waist and put her cheek on his back between his shoulders and closed her eyes.

“It wasn’t that bad, was it?” He asked gently. Her gesture was one she’d done many times in the past when missions had gone sideways and they still had rules about how and when they could comfort each other.

“No.” she admitted after a while but didn’t let go.

Jack turned in her arms and hugged her back. “I’m relieved it’s over too.” He told her and held her tightly as he closed his eyes and his head lowered into her still damp hair. “In a few days, we’ll be home and we can thank the kids for taking care of Gracie too.”

“I hope Hank has been paying them.” Sam said. She smiled a little though. There were few things she loved more than hugging her husband and the warm smell that was uniquely him. They had been married less than a year and it still made her a little giddy to think let alone say the word in reference to him.

“Hey, I don’t mean to interrupt but we’re coming up on Eridu.” Daniel said poking his head into the room Sam and Jack had used to change after their showers.

“Thanks Danny.” Jack said with an amused twist to his mouth. “Can I have a moment here with my _wife_?”

“Oh. Er, yah. Sorry Jack.” He said backing out of the room looking chagrined.

Sam giggled on Jack’s chest. “At least we weren’t naked this time.” She finally gasped out between giggles and Jack laughed with her.

“It serves him right if he sees my ass.” Jack said with a chuckle. “We should probably get back to the cockpit though. Technically we’re the ranking officers here.”

She captured his mouth in a quick kiss. “I’ve _always_ wanted to nail you in the General’s office chair.”

“And now I can’t leave the room.” He threw up his arms and called after her as she walked away but her only answer was tinkling laughter trailing away.

* * *

Yakara had taken Heneta aside and was speaking softly with the woman who occasionally nodded or shook her head but they had moved far enough away in the garden that Yakara could not be easily heard over the general conversation.

One of the villagers was seeing to the food and drinks and another had offer lodging for anyone that needed rest after their long mission which several of them had taken her up on as no one had slept in over forty eight hours. Inah had warmly greeted all of SG-1 then in her polite way insisted Jack and Sam walk with her.

“Can you help her?” Jack asked the dark haired woman about Heneta.

“She is deeply wounded but her soul may heal with time. You are worried that your world is no place for her and that you would not be able to protect her as you promised.” She told Jack.

“That about sums it up.” Jack agreed.

“I will do what I can. You may both visit whenever you like to check on her progress. It is my hope that the Ori will not prevail.”

Sam had been thoughtfully silent through the exchange. Jack had been right, Inah had a strange comforting motherly vibe to her. It made her miss Gracie even more.

“She misses you as well.” Inah said to Sam.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that.” Sam said with a sigh.

“You are uncomfortable with another digging around in your mind for good reason. I cannot undo what was done to you. I wish I could. It was cruel to use your feelings in that way.”

Sam’s mouth canted. “It made me realize it wasn’t what I really wanted though, so some good came of it.” Her eyes slid to Jack. Fifth’s attempts to manipulate her mind had made her subconsciously realized when faced with the reality of being married to Pete that he wasn’t what she wanted. When her heart had imagined her hopes, Pete wasn’t the man she wanted to hand her a cup of coffee in his cartoon emblazoned undershorts in the morning. It was why she’d pictured a home near a lake. She’d been trying to tell herself who she really wanted without cluing in the replicator. Suburban Pete did not belong on Jack’s lake or any lake. She belonged there but Pete did not. Pete would have never been happy to sit on a dock in silence fishing for hours the way Jack was. Pete wasn’t capable of the level of Zen that required. The lack of idle mindless chatter he seemed to engage in nonstop.

Inah grinned in amusement. “I am glad you can find purpose in your pain. Many cannot. Some take long to learn.” She tilted her head at Jack and Sam bit back a smile.

“You know if I want people talking about me, I could spend my time in DC.” He said sourly but his eyes twinkled as he looked at his wife.

“He chooses not to be.”

“Yep.” Sam popped the p in yep. It was a very old conversation between them and several of Jack’s long dead enemies and occasionally her father which was why Jake hadn’t initially been a fan of her and Jack being in a relationship though he’d known about it longer than anyone but Teal’c. She’d never even told Janet though she knew the other woman had suspected she’d chosen not to ask directly to avoid any complications her knowing for certain might have caused.

“I can be serious.” Jack insisted.

Sam and Inah however laughed.

“I’m sure you can.” Inah said and that was all it took for Sam and Inah to become fast friends.

“Come, I’ll give you something to heal the damage from my last tonic.”

“Damage?” Sam asked her in concern.

“Inah gave me some stuff to keep me awake even if I was zatted but apparently it screws up your kidneys and liver for a while.”

“Jack.” Sam said in frustration.

“What, it worked.” He said with a shrug but his voice was a little defensive and she sighed and shook her head.

Inah smiled. “It is my fault not his that he used the compound. I was not able to come up with a better solution at the time without causing a time constraint issue.” She admitted with a shrug. “However, I shall remedy the situation with something that will help his body heal more quickly.” She told Sam.

Sam looked at her sideways. “As long as it works, may I have a sample to take back to analyze?”

“Of course. This one is at least consistently useful though you will find some of the ingredients rather exotic.” She shook her head. “Or perhaps not. You are unusually well traveled.” She said with a smile. They had reached her lab and she waved them inside before going to her work bench. “I’m going to have to inject you with this to get it directly into your blood stream. Drinking it doesn’t seem to work on humans.”

“On the contrary, drinking works fine on me. Now Teal’c. Teal’c drinking doesn’t work on at all.” Jack declared.

“Jack.”

“Sam.”

“I love you... but shut up.”

Jack preened a little but chuckled. If he couldn’t mess with Carter, who could he mess with after all. “Yes Ma’am.” He said and saluted her.

Inah gave Sam a significant look that got a smirk out of Sam. “You have delightfully strange taste in men dear.”

“Yah well, if you knew my dad you’d understand it.”

Jack threw back his head and laughed. Sam looked at him oddly. “It’s the first time I’ve heard you admit it.”

“Very funny.” She told him with her eyes narrowed.

“What. Dad noticed it years ago. Why did you think he was so not a fan of me being with you?”

“Funny. I remember it being because you were insufferable and annoying.”

“See. Exactly like him.”

Inah laughed. “Children, if we could focus a little here.”

“Yes mom.” They said in suffering voices together.

Inah shook her head but smiled in amusement. She picked up a vial Sam would have sworn wasn’t there before and a syringe package she defiantly knew hadn’t been on the clean bench a moment ago. She drew off a small amount of the compound before placing the cap back on tightly. “Roll up your sleeve and hold still.”

Jack unconsciously shrunk back slightly but did what he was told while Inah injected him with the compound then handed Sam the rest of the bottle. “You can come back and get more if you find it useful. It’s the least I can do for you at this point.”

Sam looked at her quizzically. “But we haven’t done anything for you.” She finally said.

“You think not hm? She chuckled a bit. “I’ll explain it to you someday perhaps. When you’re older.”

“I though you were kidding when you said she was like Lya.” Sam admitted to Jack.

“You didn’t believe me when I said I could teach Gracie ASL either.” He said smugly and yet their daughter had caught on to basic signs for food and potty and up very quickly because she was brilliant like her mother instead of an average shlub like her dad.

“Oh would you _stop_ already.” Inah glared at Jack who gave her a ‘who me?’ kind of look. She railed on Sam. “Work on his self-esteem, would you?”

“It’s an act.” Sam insisted.

“Not always. Half the time he really does feel like an idiot.” Inah huffed.

Sam looked kind of surprised then thoughtful.

* * *

“We promise we will check on you Heneta.” Sam told her. “Inah will keep you safe. The Ori are afraid of her and don’t come here.”

“I still don’t understand what it is about her they fear.”

“Well, she’s god so…” Daniel said. He had explained to Sam and Jack about the nature of her name and who he thought she was. Jack had nodded thoughtfully and Sam had shaken her head which was the opposite of what Daniel had been expecting of them.

“I am not god.” Inah insisted once more but Daniel and Jack didn’t really believe her and Sam was sort of confused that Jack, the most cynical person she’s ever met in her life agrees with Daniel that this slim dark haired woman who weirdly reminds her of Morticia Adams except not homicidal might be god or as close as their concept of god as a being could get.

Jack loud whispered out of the side of his mouth to Sam. “She’s totally god.”

Sam elbowed him.

Vala handed Yakara a GDO and explained how it worked so if they needed the SGC for any reason they could reach them quickly and easily by dialing earth directly. Yakara didn’t have the heart to tell her that Inah would not be dissuaded by a door.

Sam hugged Heneta. “Thank you.” She said simply.

“It is you I should thank. You and your husband for trusting I would not betray you.”

“I know an honest face when I see one.” Jack told her simply and took her hand and squeezed it.

“I will miss you both. You were kind to me even though it was not required of you.”

Jack and Sam smiled and got into the tel’tak with the others. It took off into the evening sky.

“Come dear. Let us serve you a meal and then make room for you in the village.” Inah told her.

“Will they be back?” the older woman asked concerned.

“Oh yes. You will see them again. Sam and Jack do not easily break their promises.”

“You seem very certain.”

“I know their hearts. I’ve been watching them longer than they have been alive actually.”

“How is that possible?”

“Well, for starters dear, I am very _very_ old.”


	22. There’s No Place Like Home

**Chapter 22 – There’s No Place Like Home**

Their flight back to Earth was relatively quiet after everyone had compared notes on how the mission had gone for them. Jack had steadfastly refused to leave Sam’s side and more often than not had her hand in his even if he was just playing with her fingers absently. After Teal’c gave SG-12 a hard look for joking about it, everyone just sort of politely ignored this behavior from him including Sam.

Landry greeted them on the NORAD landing platform and shook Jack’s hand before hugging Sam.

“If you ever do something like that again Sir…” He started to tell Jack.

“Pretty sure the guy who had that bright idea is dead and I got the distinct impression the rest of the Ori were not on board with the plan.” Vala had filled him in on what she figured they were up to and that it was almost impossibly unlikely that Adria would give up her power like that even if they had succeeded in holding on to Sam long enough to create a male child with him.

“I know you are probably in a hurry General O’Neill, Sam, but I need you all to go get a physical first for security reasons.” They knew the routine. He knew they also wanted to get to see their daughter as soon as possible as it had been over a month for Sam and nearly as long for Jack. “Jack, a moment?” he asked his friend.

They moved off to the side while everyone else headed for the staff bus into the mountain. “I called Wil to let him know you got home safe. He’s very relieved. Mary, his wife is cooking SG-1 a big dinner to welcome you guys home. She thought the kids might take it better if it was more of a party and less of a grab your kid and go situation.”

Jack thought for a long moment about how his wife was about Cassie when she was little and nodded. “Good call Hank. I’ll make something up about her having most of her stuff at the Amos house to Sam to explain why everyone is bringing their cars.”

“She’s not that easily fooled.” Hank warned him.

Jack tilted his head thoughtfully. “No. But she’s tired and won’t think it through until we are half way there and I’m driving.”

Landry grinned. “Go get checked out and cleaned up. You’re going to have to submit a mission report too unless you want me to write you up for insubordination and going AWOL.”

“It’s not the first time I’ve been AWOL.” Jack admitted.

Hank laughed. “Quit being a bad influence on your wife then. She might make general before you retire.”

“I hope so. We could use the extra income with the lack of hazard pay these days.”

Hank clapped his friend on the back. “Come on. The bus is leaving. Literally.”

* * *

Wil and Mary gave each other significant looks. The die was set. The first half of the show was already unwittingly in the basement playing with Gracie. She could have warned them she supposed but Sammy would have just been crying all afternoon with a combination of relief and grief. Mary just didn’t feel up to a hysterical teen.

She did however feel up to making a massive pot of spaghetti and garlic bread and broccoli. And for Jack and Jon, chocolate cake. Because from everything Mary knew, Jack deserved a giant welcome home cake all to himself. Added bonus she’d be meeting her boss finally.

In the basement, Sammy sat on the big shag rug Mary had set up with Gracie’s toys. Lynn and Brian were taking turns playing pool with Lori and Zulfi. Jason and Jon were playing darts. Sammy didn’t have the heart to play with either group as it wasn’t fair. She was better at both games then any of them including Jon who was spectacular at darts. Still terrible at ping pong.

Instead, she lay on the rug and let Gracie climb on her She was scooting and had gotten the hang of crawling. She’d taken lots of video for Sam knowing it was a milestone she’d regret missing. In the middle of trying to get a toy away from Sammy, Grace tilted her hear exactly the way Jack did when he was listening to something “Dada!” She said firmly and bopped her little fist on Sammy who laughed.

“ Your daddy is going to _looovveee_ that you said that before mama.” She told the baby.

“Ah dadadadadad!” she squealed and took off for the edge of the rug. Sammy laughed.

“Jon, watch out. Incoming SLG!” she told him as Gracie was headed his way. Surface to leg Gracie. Uncle Wil’s description of the scooting six month old.

“Were the folks expecting people? I heard the garage door open.”

Sammy shook her head. The guy could hear like a freaking owl. “No idea. They didn’t say anything to me. Might be one of the boys.” She said with a shrug referring to Wil and Mary’s two sons.

“Dadadadadad!” Gracie insisted to Jon.

“Not technically kiddo.” He said laughing. “I just look like him a little.”

“A lot.” Sammy muttered as she got up to fetch the little girl. Jon was starting to grow into his face a bit finally.

Gracie though kept on going to the stairs and plunked her little fists on the bottom one. “A DADA!” she insisted.

“Do you want grandpa Wil? Is that it? Ok, let’s go find him.” Sammy told Gracie as she swooped her up and tossed her in the air.

Halfway up the stairs Mary opened the door. “Oh good. Have Jon come up too.” She told Sammy and shut the door again.

“Jon, we’re being paged.” She told him and waited a moment for him to join her on the stairs. He looked up at her and his eyes softened at the sight of her holding the baby.

“Mekta time.” He said to her, his heart in his eyes.

Sammy’s eyes softened back as her breath caught. He rarely came out and just said it. Perhaps years of not being able to had tied his tongue. “niss trah” she said with a soft smile. And she always would be.

He’d reached the stair just below her. “Any chance on a yes this time?” he said hopefully though it was clear he was only joking.

“Ask me again in a decade.” She leaned forward and brushed his lips with her own. “I promise I’ll give you the answer you want.”

“I’ll take it.” He said with a grin.

* * *

Wil had been the one to answer the door when Jack’s truck pulled up into his driveway. Teal’c’s SUV was right behind him and Camron’s convertible behind him. Wil hit the garage door opener and walked out to the driveway. “Why don’t you folks come into the garage. Sir.” He said nodding at Jack who looked up at the sky and rolled his eyes as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

“It’s Jack, Wil. Just Jack.”

“Sorry sir.” Wil said to Sam’s laughter.

“Oh fer cryin out loud.” Jack muttered.

“Come on in guys. Try not to trip over the kitchen table. It’s pretty close to the door right now.”

“Jack?” Sam asked him suspiciously. Jack gave her an entirely unconvincing innocent look.

“Jack.” She said more firmly.

“I swear it wasn’t my idea Sam.” He told her then gave her a quick kiss. “Kill Hank. I just went along with this.”

“I can make it look like an accident you know.” She told him.

“I’ll dig.” He said affably then followed Wil into the house. Teal’c and Daniel had ridden together,

Vala had ridden with Cam mostly because she loved the wind in her hair more than interest in his company as she preferred Daniel’s. She’d taken up knitting after Cassie bought her a kit and shown her how to do it and Teal’c was sporting an orange and yellow tuke by her hands. Jack had just shook his head in amusement when he’d seen it.

Sam followed Jack after Teal’c had waved her ahead in his silly fandom hat and was assailed with the delightful combination of garlic, herbs and tomato sauce. On a counter off to the side was a bucket of ice with a bottle of wine in it and a fantastic looking chocolate cake her husband was presently discreetly trying to stick his finger in like a child. She swatted his hand.

“Sam, Jack, I’d like you to meet my wife Mary. She’ll be feeding you tonight whether you like it or not as she will make my life very unpleasant if I don’t force you to stay for dinner.” Wil said grinning over the long table that stretched from the door to well into the kitchen cabinet area and had twelve chairs around it, one bench that seemed to fit three people if they were thin and one portable highchair.

“It’s nice to meet you finally in person ma’am.” Mary said to Sam.

“You’re M. E. Amos.” Sam said with a grin.

“Yes I am.” she said smiling.

“I was starting to think you were a myth. I’ve been trying to get you to work directly in the projects again for years.”

“Mary is a bit antisocial.”

“It was his own fault.” Mary said sullenly

“You threatened him with an extrusion.” Wil reminded her.

“I finally had a nice job with people that made me feel appreciated and he tried to get us all killed.” Her eyes flashed.

“Is that what I sound like when the techs screw up?” Sam asked Jack in concern.

“You’re usually slightly more terrifying.” Jack admitted.

“Good.” Sam said with a satisfied smile.

Mary laughed. “Water under the bridge.” She said as she bent over to pull a tray out of the oven filled with slices of garlic toast.

“Woah, that smells _really_ good.” Daniel said as he walked in with Teal’c. “Are we being fed?”

“Apparently.” Sam told him.

“Great. Where’s Gracie?”

Mary smiled and went around a corner and came back seconds later. “On her way up.” She went back to preparing dinner.

“Can I get you folks something to drink?” Wil asked.

“Beer?”

“Diet Coke?”

“I’ll take whatever you’ve got.” Daniel admitted.

Teal’c had not answered but Wil handed him a coke anyways. He knew the large dark man did not drink. He then started fishing around looking for the beer.

“Wil just take the salad out so you can find the beer.” Mary told him in exasperation after a minute.

Sammy and Jon came around the corner through the other side of the great room and stopped and stared.

“AH DADADA!” Gracie shrieked in excitement.

Jack being the sort of man who won’t cry when you cut his arm off, was however, a sentimental crier. He had tears in his eyes as he and Sam walked over to their daughter and without taking her out of Sammy’s arms hugged Gracie and both teens tightly. “Thank you.” He told them both softly.

Sammy rolled her eyes. “For what? All we did was babysit.”

But Jack knew she was trying to hide her emotions and hugged her again. “For keeping her safe for us so I could focus on finding Sam without worrying.”

Sammy wouldn’t look at him now though and sniffled suspiciously as Gracie grabbed on to her father’s t-shirt.

“Did you miss us pumpkin?” Jack asked her.

Gracie looked up at her father and wacked him in the face with a tiny fist which made him laugh. “Ok, I guess I deserve that for disappearing for a month.” He agreed and Jon laughed.

Jon looked up at Sam with a tight lipped expression. “I’m glad you’re safe.” He told her simply and she smiled and ruffled his hair. “Ga! Stop that!” he whined then ducked. Sammy laughed at him.

Sam took Gracie from Jack and held her against her chest with her eyes closed, her face in the little girl’s wispy curls. Jack smiled at them, his heart in his eyes. His entire world was in that moment.

Everyone had stayed back in the kitchen to give them some privacy during the hand off but no one had any illusion that the entire exchange was being watched with interest. Vala had her cell phone out and had recorded the whole thing to send each of them later.

“Wil,” Mary told her husband. “Why don’t you go round up the rest of the kids. I’m sure they would like to meet everyone.”

Wil nodded and headed for the basement door. Rather than shout down he went down there to tell the other kids who was here.

“Kids?” Daniel asked her.

“Friends of Sammy and Jon. Wil and I thought you might like to get to know them.”

“Well, I do.” Vala said stealing a piece of garlic bread from the basket on the counter before Mary could swat her hand away.

“Let’s give them a little more privacy for a moment shall we. Cam, why don’t you start tossing the salad. Daniel put the bread on the table. I’ll pour the wine.” Vala announced.

“I was going to have the kids do that.” Mary said.

“They could use the exercise.” Vala said with a smile. “I’m Vala Mal Doran. I work with Sam.” She said smiling. She’d never really properly introduced herself the first time in her haste.

“Very nice to meet you Vala. By Jon’s drawing that’s Teal’c and that’s Daniel and that’s Cam by process of elimination as he’s not in that picture.” She said pointing to each.

“Did you see the one he did for Sam and Jack?” Vala said excitedly.

“Yes! It’s incredible isn’t it?”

“Who knew he had so much talent. Sam showed me a folder she kept of all the doodles Jack drew her for years after we saw that.”

“All of them?” Mary asked with a laugh.”

“Love makes you do crazy stuff.” Vala agreed cutting her eyes to Daniel for a moment as the women discreetly watched Sam and Jack talk softly with Sammy and Jon about Gracie’s time with the teens. “I made the right choice didn’t I?”

Mary squeezed the younger woman’s arm. “You absolutely did.” She agreed. They might not realize it but those four needed to be a family. It was the only genuinely healthy outcome for the two younger versions of themselves to be part of their original selves’ lives in an ancillary manner.

The moment was broken by the loud clomp of teen feet on the basement steps and a rush of bodies into the great room. Laughingly Jon and Sammy introduced Sam and Jack into all their new friends.

* * *

Many hours later Gracie was asleep in her crib and Sam was shrugging on one of Jack’s faded USAF training t-shirts to sleep in.

“What do you suppose happened to our pillowcases?” Jack asked her in confusion.

“Not a clue.” Sam said perplexed.

* * *

Across town a thirteen year old blond girl was asleep in her bed. A small white rag doll clutched in her hand.


End file.
